Well this sucks
by AssassiNATE
Summary: People play hardcore in Minecraft for fun, why should this be any different? Tom is stuck in SAO, but he came to have fun, so why should he not? He is going to die one day so he might as well enjoy himself while he is in a virtual reality where anything is possible.
1. Chapter 1

Welcome to SAO ch 1

The day had finally arrived. Today was the release date of the first virtual reality massive multiplayer online game: Sword Art Online. It was exciting day for my brother Chuck, my best friend Mark, and me, Tom. My mom did not support video games much. She found the idea of virtual reality a bit troubling. She preferred when my brother and I played real sports. But after Chuck cracked his head open and got a metal plate, she calmed down a little.

I managed to snag a copy of SAO by competing in a math competition. Nerdy I know, but at least my collage will be free. Mark was a beta tester and managed to pick up a copy for Chuck.

When the game was released, my mom gave my brother and I two hours. To save time, Mark logged in before us to pick us up the basic equipment.

Like I said before, the day had finally arrived. An hour after the server went live, Chuck and I logged on. We didn't share a room, but mine had a computer so we decided to dive from there.

Chuck laid down on my bed while I leaned back in my beloved lazzyboy. We put on our NerveGears and looked at each other.

"You ready?" I asked.

"Heck ya!"

"Link start!" we yelled together.

The was a flash of color then a transparent window opened up.

"What the heck," said Chuck. "This is not how it was advertised." He sat up.

"Please follow the on screen instructions," came a voice.

"I guess we still need to calibrate it," I said. After doing some basic movement and big green check appeared on screen.

"Okay," I said, "for real this time. Link start!"

The colors reappeared but much bright this time. My mind went into sensory overload. The next thing I knew I was floating in space. A menu and keyboard appeared in front of me. I reached out and touched it. It felt real and the movement was natural. Clearly, this was the most freaking awesome thing ever. And now I had to pick a name.

Honestly, I had no idea of what to pick. It didn't accrue to me me that I would have to pick a name. I knew that in a massive game like this I could not use my own. I could chose a normal name but I decided against it because that would be lame. Next came a name from all the nerd universes I knew of. I picked Silver. Sadly, it was already taken. The next thing that popped into my head Hydro Cannon. That was a bit long for my lazy self so I shortened it to Hydro.

I didn't care much for my appearance. I figured I would be wearing a helmet most of the time anyway. I randomly clicked on all the facial option. The only thing that I took notice on was my nose. It was ridiculously huge. Needles to say I fixed that.

With evenly thing set I pressed the confirm button and continued on. Big blue letters ready "WELCOME TO SWORD ART ONLINE" and then I was teleported into a small room. I walked out and let out a gasp.

I was in a huge market with thousands of others. In the distance I could see large pillars. It was amazing the graphics were so lifelike I couldn't even tell I was in a game anymore.

"Chuck?" a red head asked as soon as took a few more steps.

"Close," I replied. "Tom. Is that you Mark?"

"Ya, but we're in game so call me Frenzy."

"Fine, whatever," I said. "What is taking Chuck so long?"

Just then, a new character walked out of spawn.

"What the heck!" He yelled. "You look just like me. Is that you Tom?"

"Maybe. What are the chances that randomizing would look like you?"

"Some I guess."

"Who cares," said Mark. "Check out the class packages that I found you guys."

Mark opened up a trading menu and game my brother and I our starter packs.

"As request I got you the assassin pack. Chuck, sorry there was no pack for guy-that-beats-people-up, but I found something you might like.

Chuck opened his pack first. He press the equip all box before even bothering to see what he got. In a flash Chuck was reequipped with armor that looked like metal football pads and a huge ax. The lineman look very happy with his items.

"Some one was born to be a front guard," I said. "Let's see what I got."

I went threw my inventory and found an assassin cloak, lock pick, and Last Breath weapon. I eagerly equipped the gear. To my dismay, my awesomely named weapon was nothing more than a pansyish knife.

I frowned at Mark.

"I want something bigger."

"It is not about the size, it's how you use it."

"Oh course you would say that. I'm talking about swords."

"So was I," smirked Mark.

"You're a perv and I hate you," I said with a straight face.

"No seriously, looks at the bonus."

I check it out. To my surprised, to compliment the lowest attack increase in the game came a nice bonus effect. One percent chance to instantly kill any monster killed 20 times. Plus five percent for every five levels the monster higher is then you with a max of thirty. The only down side was that it could only be used on the weakest monster of the floor. It was basically the perfect grinding level, but only if you fall behind the leading players.

"I guess it will do for now. I'm still going to need a sword."

"Ya ya ya, who cares," said Chuck. "Let's go kill stuff. My ax is sick."

We went into the field right outside of of the Town of Beginnings. Mark showed us the basic of combat like how to use sword skills. I had some much fun. It took twenty five hits for me to kill a bore with out sword skills. Luckily I could easily get five hits on a single approach. The sword skills were over powered too. I could kill bore in two hits with my LUNGE attack.

Needless to say, time flew by. Two and a half hours past. I got a lucky and kill a bore with my first hit. I turned around and raised my arm in triumph. Just then my brother exploded in an burst of rainbow pixels.

"Oh crap," I said check in the in game time. "We went over by half an hour."

I tried to logout. To my alarm the option was missing.

"Sucks to be you," said Mark. "Being forced off IRL sucks like no other. I would brace yourself."

I did. Seconds turned into into minutes.

"Your bro must have been nice enough to stop your mom from removing your NerveGear. We better pick up his stuff for him."

So we gathered his stuff. We went back to grinding. Just then, we saw a new creature. It was a wolf. I didn't know if we could take it. My knife did like no damage, and the monster was level five. It had a whopping two hundred hit points. I really didn't want to die on the first floor, let alone my first day. Out of no where, another player charged it. He had a cloak like mine, but a sword instead of a dagger.

His first attack was a LUNGE sword skill. Rookie mistake. While the attack was powerful, it was not enough for a one hit kill. Now he had to take a three second cool down. The wolf attacked before he could even move again. It bit onto his arm and started to slowly drain his hp. Not wanting to be a jerk that lets new players die, I charged into battle.

Using my normal attack, I dealt some minor damage. The wolf let go a bit me for some major damage. It leaped back. It didn't more for a few seconds. Then it jumped at me again. I used a LUNGE of my own and slashed the wolf right along its underbelly. The new comer finished it with an OVERHEAD skill.

"Dude, are you okay," said Mark. "You're almost dead. Check your hp bar in the conner."

I glanced at it. Seven percent. Dang that was close. Just then, a new window opened. It read "battle healing skill available. Auto regain health while in combat. Level up by spending time with hp in red zone. Would you like to accept?" Of course I would. After that, every few seconds, I regained some life. Now I wouldn't have to worry about dying anytime soon.

"Hey," I said turning to the new guy. "I'm Tom, I mean Hydro."

"Sup," came the reply. "I'm Taylor, I mean Blast. Thanks for the help."

I took a second to look at him. Immediately I started laughing. The guy had both features of a guy and a girl. He had big red lips and eyelashes that went oh so perfectly with his beard and side burns.

"Your face," I said and fell and the ground laughing.

"Yes, yes. Laugh it up. I clicked some wrong buttons and now I look stupid. You can stop now."

"Don't sweat it," said Mark walking over. "If you could change your appearance in the beta, I'm sure you can do it in the full game."

"I totally have to see what you look like after you get it all fixed. Friend me?"

"Why not?" came Blast's answer.

And thus I became friends with the first person I met online. Blast then left to go and find some friends. Ten minutes latter, everyone was teleported to the Town of Beginnings.

Opening announcements were made. I didn't really pay attention. I knew that my mom wouldn't let me play much so I figures I would soon fall behind the people beating floor bosses and what not. My ears perked up when there was mention if the missing logout button.

My jaw dropped at the news that it was a part of the game. We were in this for the long haul. To make things worse, death meant death. I started to get nervous, but only for a second. Then I call it as bull crap. It was the announcement to the players already dead the really struck me home. Some players were dead because their NervrGear fried their brains when it was forced off. Sure enough, I saw what a feared the most. One of the news articles showed it. My room. Me. And worst of all, my big brother with a sheet over his head.

He was dead. My mom killed him. It was an accident. He was dead. It could have been me. But he was dead. The same thing had happened to many others. But also to my brother. He was dead. We had a soccer match tomorrow. But he couldn't go. He was dead. I couldn't go. I would soon be dead.

It wad too much. I sunk to my knees and wailed. Soon I would be with my brother. Soon. But not yet. Not without a fight.

**So here is the first chapter of my own experience in SAO. If I were to really play, I probably would have died like Chuck. But that's boring so I just made him my brother. Unlike my other story, this one will be much more chill. Make sure to review or favorite. It really helps me when you do. **


	2. Chapter 2

**So I said some things wrong in my last chapter. I said class but what I really meant was theme. Chuck was supposed to be a tank. Tom is all attack along with hiding and other sneaky skills. Mark is attack and defense but no speed. Just thought I would clear that up now. Also, I couldn't really finding anything on stat distribution so I keep that really general. Also I love movie and song quotes so I threw a whole bunch throughout this chapter. **

Ch2

I don't even know his in-game name

At this point, I really didn't care what else was said. Actually the idea of a free gift sounded nice; half heartily, I open up my inventory. I found a mirror. Just then, the countless thousands around me as well as myself flash. We all looked different. I saw Mark standing next to me. I could tell it was him because he looked like what he did in real life. So much for being someone different online. You were you, and you were also your only life. I didn't care. Things just got real. Might as well make everything as real as possible.

I stood up and faced the sky. I closed my piercing green eyes and left the final tears drop. Then with out looking back I walked out of the Town of Beginnings. My brother may be dead, but I still had other things to live for. I vowed to clear the game, or at least support those that would fight the bosses. It was the least I could do to honor Chuck. I knew he would be fighting on the front lines.

The first boar that I saw charged strait at me. With out breaking stride, I pulled out my knife and stabbed it. I downed it in one hit and kept going. I didn't even know where, but I didn't care. I just wanted to get away from the thousands of others.

Eventually I came across a circle of trees. In the middle was a chest. I figured it must be guarded in some way but I charges strait in anyway.

Once I reached the chest, I paused for a second. I would hate it to be attacked while opening it. The chest was locked, but could be opened with the PICK skill. I accepted the skill right then. I remembered the lock pick in my started kit and took that at as well. It gave a decent bonus to the skill, but only had 5 uses. It raised my success rate from 10% to 80% so I figures it was worth it.

I opened the chest and took the item without even bothering to see what is was. Then, I simply ran. My progress was slowed by ten wolves made of shadows. They had maroon cursors over their heads so I didn't even try to fight.

They chased me. They were practically fast as I was. Every misstep I made brought them a little bit closer. They were right on top of me when I heard someone yell, "Come with me if you want to live." Of course it was none other than Frenzy.

Not having any other good ideas, I decided to follow my friend. He lead me though the forest till we returned to the path. After that, we simply followed it. Eventually, we came to a small town. As the distance to the town closed, the distance between me and the wolves closed as well. When I was about a hundred feet from the town, the first shadow reached me. It bit onto my shoulder, draining my health to practically zero. I was really scared at that point. On hit from just about anything would surely instantly kill me. At the last few feet disappeared, another wolf jumped me. Luckily, I had Frenzy with me. He used his small shield to block the attack.

"Run you fool," Frenzy said. "I can tank a few hits. You are practically dead. Go now."

"I don't want to," I said, but I knew he was right. I only had leather armor. It was quick, but paper thin. His light metal plate would give him some decent defense.

I turned and ran the last few feet to the town. I watch Frenzy fight. His experience as a beta test really showed. He attacked swiftly and accurately. He dodged when he could and blocked when he couldn't. What was even greater is that he refrained from using any sword skills. The positions must have felt natural to him, but the cool down time would have killed him so he refrained.

At one point, one of the shadow wolves leaped at him. It was the moment he was waiting for. Frenzy brought his sword up in a great diagonal swipe. He used all his momentum so that he spun around. The attack was very powerful and did critical damage.

In a beautiful flash, the shadow creature turned from black to rainbow shards and disappeared into nothingness. After that, Frenzy bolted for the safe zone.

"Ready for some advanced cheater AI exploit with safe zone techniques?" asked Frenzy. "We could get some early drops off these monsters."

"I guess," I sighed.

The tactic was much easier then Frenzy let on. With one person, it got a more complicated but who cares how that works. Clearly, the two of us would be together forever, for better or worse. Unless death do us part of course. Unfortunately, that was a liable concern. Anyway, Frenzy stepped out of the safe zone and got the wolves to focus in on him. Then, I did a SWITCH. I got off a bit of damage while the AI retargeted. Then I quickly retreated back to the safe zone. This confused the AI even more as it was still trying to target me. Frenzy was completely ignored for a few seconds as the monsters processed that they could not switch their target to a player in the safe zone.

This was not a very efficient way of fighting, but eventually the shadows dropped from nine to eight and eight to seven.

"Heck yes," said Frenzy. "That last one dropped a better weapon. Give me a minute." He went through his inventory and his new sword appeared. It was a black jagged sword called Razor Edge. At this point I realized that I still hadn't checked out my loot from the chest. To my delight, I found a new sword as well. It was called Void Dice. It was also a one handed sword, but straight rather than curved.

Frenzy was right, we were able to get good loot early. Dare I say it, but since it was the first day, we were probably in the top ten strongest players list. With our new gear, fighting the mobs became much easier. I literally watched the cursors above the shadows change from maroon to bright red as I equipped my new blue blade. We continued as before. Seven was soon six. After the fifth one was shattered, I check my hp bar. I was finally back to full health. Thank goodness for BATTLE HEALING.

With enough hp to tank a few hits, I stepped out of the safe zone and held my ground. Frenzy took advantage of my new presence against the mobs. He was able to flank the pack without being detected. One of the wolves pounced at me. I used my LUNGE skill. I lifted my sword with the handled to my chest and the blade pointing out. I aimed for the wolves mouth as the sword glowed blue. I felt the SYSTEM takeover and extended my arm faster than humanly possible straight into the mouth of the shadow. Since Frenzy and I had already put some damage to the creature, a direct hit though the mouth was more than enough to finish it.

Then Frenzy let off a sword skill of his own. His time in the beta taught him some more advanced skills that most players hadn't successfully activated once yet. He reversed his grip and brought his sword to his forearm so it curved around his elbow. He slightly bent over and moved his arm back so the tip almost touched his head. His sword started to flash red. Even as sparks started to dances on his black jagged blade, he held his pose. After about a second he unleashed his WRATH skill. He made a huge uppercut across his body to hit a wolf on his right. The strike was so powerful that the follow though gave him the momentum to do a backflip. The SERVER guided his blade so that he attacked a beast on his left as he landed.

After he was back on the ground, Frenzy crouched for a second. Then both of the shadows that he attacked shattered into an infinite number of polygons.

And then there was two. Just kidding there was one. While Frenzy wad busting out some moves, I managed to take down another one the traditional way, and by that I mean by stabbing the wolf a bunch of times.

With perfect symmetry, my best friend and I LUNGED the last shadow. It shattered just the the others.

With the battle finally over, a small window appeared. It showed the exp and col that revived for defeating all the mob. It was a good catch. In fact it was so good that both Frenzy and I leveled up.

It was getting late, so we decided to head into town and try to find an inn to spend the night in.

Inns were fairly cheap. The one we stayed in only had single and double rooms. The rooms were literally beds behind lockable doors. It wasn't much, but it was all that was needed. Frenzy and I got a double because it was a bit cheaper than two singles.

That night, we stayed up and talked. We were both laying in bed. They were about five feet apart so there was no need to talk loud.

"I think we're in this for the long hough," said Frenzy.

"You may be right."

"How do you feel about it."

"Well," I said, "this sucks. But it might be fun."

"Ya the two of us on an adventure with our lives at risk, the two amigos. What more could we want?"

I started to tear up. "At least we know it is truly for our lives. I miss Chuck. I'll never see him again."

We had a brief moment of silence.

"I didn't even know his name."

"Now there is only one question."

"What's that?"

"What are we going to do to honor your brother."

"We're going to live. We will beat this game. And our top priority will be to help people in danger. That's what he would have done."

"His name was probably something like Hero."

"I bet it was. In his honor, I think we should still form a party of three. It would be safer for us all."

"Why don't you message Blast? He'll probably join us."

"It's late," I said. "I'll do it tomorrow."

"I know your hurting, Bro, but it is okay. Let it all out. Cry if you want to. He was your brother and my friend."

"It hurts too much to think of him," I sniveled.

"Just remember, he was one of the first, but not the last. Others will be going through the same thing as you. Don't forget that I'm hurting too."

"I'm going to sleep now. See you tomorrow." I closed my eyes and let the days events catch up with me. I normally have trouble falling asleep, but not after a day like today.


	3. Chapter 3

Ch 3

Isn't Making Friends Fun?

It was a new day. It might be a good day, but probably not. It was 10:00 am. I felt good at least. A full nine hours of sleep beat the five I normally got. I sat up and stretched. I was still half asleep so it took a few seconds for me to register where I was. Then it hit me. I was stuck in a game. Mark was here. Chuck used to be. The grief flooded over me once again. I was able to keep it together, but only just.

With Mark sleeping soundly beside me, I did what any good friend would do. I picked up my pillow and chucked it at his head. He groaned loudly, but he didn't attempt to get up. I left him be and decided to message Blast.

"Yo," I wrote. "So I guess things are for real. Me and my friend Frenzy were wondering if we could team up. You don't have to if you don't want to, but groups are safer. Just to note, we got some early lucky drops and we are both level 2. As of now we are leading the pack in strength. We are currently on the far north side of the floor."

I sent it and waited for a response. After a thirty second wait I figure he was busy. Or he was just one of those people that didn't feel the need to respond to texts right away. I realized just how awesome that was. Unlimited messaging, no charing, no losing your phone, and best of all a hologram keyboard. I did not miss my crap flip phone at all.

I stepped out of my room and walked down to the floor bathroom. I discovered yet another perk. I did not see any toilets. It was then that I realized I didn't need one. I looked the the mirror. My hair and clothes looked fine even though I was sleeping in them all night. I tapped the mirror and a small menu appeared. I clicked on an option to edit appearance. From there, I had the option of hair and clothes. I clicked in hair. I scanned through a list of options. I saw an option that I felt looked like me. It was called UNTAMED. It was average length hair that was messy, but with everything down, no individual hairs sticking out. I decided to keep my natural dark brown color.

Then I moved on to clothes. I also noticed the showers. My clothes list was small. All I hade was a green, blue, red, or black shirt, a pair of black jeans, and my ASSASSIN CLOAK. There was also remove all. Wanting to experience a nice hot shower, I removed all. In a flash I was stripped down to my underwear. I tried to take them off but a small popup that said "immortal object" appeared. I guess I would always have clean boxers.

I stepped into the shower and turned it on really hot. It felt so weirded. I could feel the heat on my skin, but I didn't feel wet. I was almost like a hot blanket. I took a shower more out if habit than anything else so I was in it for like five minutes.

I went back to the mirror to get dressed. I was very pleased with my current wardrobe. The black of my pants and cloak went well with blue shirt and sword.

Finally, I got a response from Blast.

"I have some other friends to be with. Sadly, I don't think any of them will ever step outside the starting city. As you may have noticed, I'm a risk taker. But risks still need some sort of safety nets. If you want me, come and get me. But seriously, I don't want to cross the floor by my self. Message me when you get to The Town of Beginnings."

I felt it was fair to go to him. It was dangerous alone and I would feel terrible if he died along the way. I went back to the room to find Frenzy finally up. I told him about the message. While he was unhappy about having to cross the floor two days in a row, but he did not object. We ate some NPC bread. Then, without farther delay, we set off.

Luckily for us, most if the mobs on the first floor were fairly passive.

Of course, had we encountered nothing, that would be boring. So of course we run into a wolf. Sadly, that did not spice things us very much. It was a low level monster with not the best AI. All it did was pounce at me. I already had my sword drawn and ready.

So apparently you get more skill exp if you kill a monster with out sword skills. So I slashed my sword right at the wolf's mouth. I knocked it right to the ground. I then dashed over and stabbed the fallen mob through the head. I penned it to the ground and watch its hp bar slowly drip away till it shatter into countless pieces. I clicked the little window that showed my reward and then opened a new one to check my stats. The combat gave some decent one handed straight sword exp. I was 97% to level 3 of 1000 (I got to level 2 while fighting to shadows).

Other than that, the walk was uneventful. We walked into the Town of Beginnings and messaged Blast. As usual, he did not respond right away. And so we waited. For quite a while actually. After half an hour a mysterious figure beckoned over to Frenzy. Curious, he walked over.

"Hey there stranger," said the man in your stereotypical creeper voice. "Might nice sword you got there. You look strong. How would you like to become stronger." He beckoned frenzy closer.

Frenzy got a good look at the man standing in the shadows. He was wearing a ragged grey cloak that obscured most of his body and face. He had a green cursor over his head confirming him a player.

Frenzy walked closer and the man pulled open his cloak.

"Want to buy a watch?"

"Heck no. First off, why the heck do I need a watch when I have time at the swipe of a finger? Second, where the heck did you get a watch?"

"No sale then? How about you, handsome young man?" He said addressing me.

"I'll pass."

What a shame," he said walking past me.

Frenzy was suspicious and kept watching him. He saw him open up a widow as he walked pasted me and tapped a few things. Because of his experience in the beta, he knew what it went when his cursor turned into and exclamation mark.

"Stop thief!" and Frenzy was on him. With his sword drawn, he preformed a LUNGE and sent the man to the ground. He stood on he chest and started wailing in him.

Realizing what was happening I drew my sword. I did a SONIC LEAP aimed at his head. A pop up appeared that read, thief caught: three potions and 3000 col returned. That was all I had.

"Trying to rob me bare," I said enraged. I joined Frenzy in slicing at the shady thief. Because we were in a safe zone, his hp was safe, however, he still felt the recoil of being repeatedly being slammed into the ground.

"Stop," said a female voice. I stopped, but Frenzy made one more thrust. "I think he has had enough."

Frenzy unwillingly stepped off the man's chest. He got up and ran.

"And don't come back," I yelled after him.

We turned and faced the new arrival. She was a young teenage girl, just like us. Well not the girl part, but you know what I mean. She was about my hight and a very appealing build. She had bright red hair done up in two small pigtails on her pretty head. I would have flirted with her had she not had her arms Crossed her chest and glaring at us with brown judgmental eyes.

"Think you'll all tough beating up a defenseless man in the streets? Hu hu."

"That 'defenseless' man just robbed me of all my money and potions," I said. "Besides, he didn't feel any pain. His hp didn't even drop a single point."

She softened a bit, but only a bit. She walked over to the gate archway and leaned against it. She just stood there. After a few seconds she said, "I'm waiting for someone."

She then proceeded to send a message. After a few seconds I revived one, it was from Blast.

It read: "I'm here. I don't see you. The only ones here are two jerky guys."

I sighed as I put two and two together. Then I smiled as I found a way to flirt with this girl.

"You know, a jerky guy would say that you looked better with with the beard and a mustache, Taylor," I used her real name that she accidentally revealed early because I knew it was slightly rude, "lucky for you, gentlemen do not lie and I can say that your real body is much more attractive now than as a man."

And thus the tone of our relationship over the next two years was set.

**Don't forget to to follow my story and leave a review if you like my story and want to find out what happens next. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Holy crap I haven updated in a reaaaaally long time. Word of advise, don't skip classes when you get to AP. No matter how smart you are skipping even more classes just leads to more homework and stress. **

**With out farther ado, here is the next chapter. **

Chapter 4 Flirting with Swords (you know what I mean)

Blast looked up at my comment. She started at me with wide eyes. Slowly, she stood up. The judgmental glare shone in the redhead's eyes once again. She slowly walked towards me and Frenzy. Each step that she took increased the tension. I started to feel like I made a mistake. Maybe now was not the time to make a joke. I just pointed out how a girl used to have problems with facial hair. Is that ever an okay thing to do? I guess not.

She stopped a mere two feet in front of me. She raised an accusing finger to my face. "What," she said pausing, "did you just call me?"

I left out a huge mental sigh. Maybe I would be okay after all. "Just your name."

"How do you know that?"

"You told me. Well, you said it," I was very careful in my tone of voice. I needed any ally and did not want to try again to find one. And as I mentioned before, this was a teenage girl, and an attractive one at that.

I let out an actual sigh of relief as she lowered her finger.

She stepped back and dropped all hostility. Her red hair covered her eyes as she bowed her head in shame. "Oh," she whispered at a barely audible level.

"Sooooo," said Frenzy, attempting to transition away from awkwardness. "How have you been?" Not the best question. No one stuck in this game would be doing good right now.

"Sorry," she said keeping her head down. "I've spent the last day trying to keep my friends calm. At least I was able to find them."

"It's okay," replied Frenzy. "It is not the easiest time to be calm right now. Who could judge you for snapping at my friend here. After all, he is Hydro."

"Hey," I interjected.

He continued like I said nothing. "Besides, we are here to help you. Anyway, maybe we should get back to your friends."

"We probably should."

Blast stood up straight and moved her bangs behind her ears. She accepted that we meant no harm and started to feel a bit more confident. She had a habit of being ruder than necessary, and it had hurt her before. Losing two potential allies today would have been a major loss, especially if she had to take care of herself, as well as four others, by herself.

Blast lead the way through the winding streets and allies. The city was still packed. Some places were rioting, others panicking. But she was agile and had little trouble waking in a relatively straight path.

Frenzy and I, on the other hand, did not have such an easy time. We could barely match her speed as she slid though the crowds as smooth as a rushing river. Don't get me wrong, both of us were athletes and light on our feet, but after years of weight lifting, we were quite a bit thicker than your average teenage girl. Eventually we gave up on being nimble like water and a bit more like rhinos. Let's just say some people said some mean words or gestures from the ground as we ran to catch up with Blast.

At last we reached the doors to an inn. Like most inns, the lobby served as a minibar. There was the main counter and some tables. Surprising, there was only four people there. All of them were girls.

"These are my friends," said Blast. "Say hello, girls."

There was a range of response from the girls. One of them had long light green hair and what I think was brown eyes. I couldn't be sure as she glanced up for a second before bowing her head back over. Her hair draped over her head like a cage. But which way did it go? Was she keeping herself locked up, away from the world, or was it SAO that she was trying to keep out. Needless to say, the blue clad girl was very shy.

There was also two girls that I assumed were twins. One wore pink, the other orange. Both of them had shoulder length, bubblegum pink hair and blue eyes. They did not pause their arguing when Frenzy and I entered.

The last friend did not fit in with the other girls. While the other girls were cute skinny girls (probably from doing years of sports together like soccer or volleyball) this fifth girl was on the large side. No, she was straight up chubby. Here black and white striped shirt did not help her to look any smaller.

Anyway, she looked up at Frenzy and started paying deep attention. Then, Blast went over names. There was Eon, Soul, Shine, and Morg respectively.

"Hello," I said in a flirting voice. "I'm Hydro."

"It is a pleasure, charming ladies," said Frenzy. "I'm Frenzy."

His gentleman side was really showing. He words caused quite a bit more of response than my direct greeting. He got the twins to look up and Morg giggle and looked down with reddened cheeks. From this pointed on I started to ship Frorg because I found it funny and Morg laughed so obviously it was ment to be. As to be assumed, Blast did not even flinch.

"Can we get a minute," I said.

"Sure," said Blast. Frenzy and I walked outside.

"Dude," I started, "we have to help them."

"Why of coarse. They need our help."

"And they're girls."

"Yes they are, but they need our help so we will help them."

"So the girl part is just a bonus?"

"These are people, not prizes. Are you going to take advantage of them in their time of need?"

"Only once."

"Once?"

"I charming but also devious and flirty. That doesn't make me a player or a cheater. All I need is one."

"Are you seriously thinking about this now?"

"I'm surprised you aren't. Honestly, when was the last time you were single for longer than a month? Was it like in eighth grade before your first girlfriend?"

Frenzy had no response for that.

"Watch you'll end up with the fat one."

"That's rude," replied Frenzy.

"Whoops," I said fighting laughter. "Sorry for insulting your future girlfriend."

I slapped him on the back and we went back inside together. The twins' argument's intensity had greatly risen. Blast step between them trying to keep the twins on the opposite sides of the table they were sitting at. Eon still did not look up and Morg's cheeks started to turn red again.

Frenzy cleared his throat to get the girls' attention. The twins stopped fighting and Morg's face went from apple to tomato.

"It would be me and Hydro's greatest pleasure to team up with you girls."

"That's great," said Morg.

"We should do something," I said.

I caught the attention of the twins. They were currently fighting about what they would do in the game. With the proposal of something, they were all ears.

"How about Frenzy and I teach you guys the basics?"

The girls agreed to the proposal. Blast's jaw dropped. She had tried to convince the friends she had known for years to not be afraid of the new world and failed. Who did these new guys think they were waltzing in and instantly convinced them after being introduced minutes before. It was enough to make her blood boil. Still, it was progress so Blast held her tongue.

"It takes a few tries to learn the positions, but after you do," I unleashed a VERTICAL SQUARE, "the system will guid you. No aiming. No forcing. Just let it flow out. It's like when you are playing music and you let go with your mind and let your instincts guide your finger to music. Who wants to go first?"

All the girls, except Blast of course, let out a small applause. Soul walked over to me and Eon went to Frenzy.

I walked behind Soul and helped her move through the motions.

"Take a deep breath," I started, "then move your arms like so." I grabbed her wrist so that my arms were up against hers. She blushed slightly at the contact, but managed to go through the motions without any trouble. Blast snorted, but I ignored her.

"Good," I said. "Now try on your own."

I stepped back and observed my teaching being absorbed. Soul took a deep breath then instantly changed from relaxed to tense. She shifted her body and her sword started to glow bright yellow. Success. She preformed a VERTICAL SQUARE.

"That was perfect," I said, even though the system made all skills perfect.

"Thanks, I couldn't have done my without your help."

"Na. You could have figured it out. I just made it faster and saved some frustration."

A few feet away, Eon was having some trouble. She wielded a two handed ax in stead of a sword. While different sword types had different skills, the basics were the same such as VERTICAL SQUARE and all the SLASHES. Axes however are a bashing weapon like maces and Eon's also gapped me to be two handed like a spear or two hand sword.

With both Frenzy and I wielding one handed swords, we could not provide much assistance. Frenzy suggested swinging the large weapon around to try to get the feel of it. Eon listened to the advice and swung the heavy ax around like it was nothing. After a few swings, she lifted the ax and spun it around her head. It flashed bright red then she attacked. It was a two hit skill. The first hit used the momentum of spinning to deliver a heavy overhead diagonal slash. The skill and momentum guided Eon to the next hit. She jumped and did a 360. Then as she came down, she unleashed a devastating vertical smash.

Needless to say, every one stood jaw dropped at the power just released. The new skill was called MANGLE and was an intermediate level skill. For someone that was shy and initially never wanted to leave the safety if the safe zone, she made amazing progress.

By her stunning performance, Eon inspired the other two girls to try their hands in combat. Shine learned to use a knife from none other than yours truly; Frenzy managed to help Morg use a sword skill with a spear.

"Who's ready to try to fight some real enemies?" I Inquired.

Needless to say, every one, even Blast, wanted to try their new knowledge out in the field. In this case, the Field of Beginnings right outside of the Town of Beginnings. Before any one could disagree, we headed towards the gates.

**And thus concludes chapter 4. So I'll probably will have the next chapter out much sooner. Don't forget to review and follow because that gives me even more motivation to do work. If you like Pokemon feel free to check out my other story. Till next time. ROCK ON DUDES and ladies. **


	5. Chapter 5

**No, I would never finish a chapter and forget to post it for a month...**

Ch 5

Fun with Swords and Girls

The seven of us paraded though the town. Or at least Frenzy, Blast and I did. Blast had been busy. She had hunted almost nonstop since day one. She only took time off when Soul found her and brought her to the inn. She was on the same level as Frenzy and I. In the entire game, not many had reached this first milestone.

Blast's main source of attention was her looks. She was the most attractive of her friends. Not by much, but it was clearly an still achievement. Levels were not publicly displayed so she did not have anyway to flash here power.

Frenzy and I on the other hand had swords much better than what was sold on the market of the first floor. We were some of the most powerful players. The lucky drops gave us a temporary lead against some of the more hardcore power-levelers.

Two powerhouses walking through the streets with a group of pretty girls was quit a sight. Girls were uncommon and beauties were even more so. Having so many altogether would be almost unheard of in the game's future.

Luckily, no one approached us. We were quite the sight, but we did not want the attention. Okay, maybe Shine was loving it, but the rest of us felt the eyes overwhelming. Poor Eon though. She was shy enough as it was. With the hundreds, eventually thousands of player staring at her, it was simply too much. She blowed her head even lower so her long hair covered her entire face. She also moved much closer to Frenzy. Luckily for the girl, the walk was not very far.

The city ended with a whole new world. Far as the eye could see was an ocean of green. The sun was just starting to set. There was only one difference between the real thing and this digital imposter. That was the color. The virtual world was not limited to shades of red and orange. There was red, orange, purple, green, pink, and blue. The clouds stood out as wisps of black against a colorful sky.

We all stood at awe at the sight. For a moment, I did not feel scared. I was calm. The hole in my heart that Chuck used to fill was pushed to the back of my mind. I didn't feel pain or sorrow, only the bliss of the moment.

Feeling looser than a rubber band, I strolled over it the closest boar.

"Watch and learn," I said cockily.

I raised my sword and smashed the oversized pig with a LUNGE. I felt alive as it shatters into an infinite amount of polygons.

Naturally, Soul wanted in on the action. She hoisted her behemoth sword onto her shoulder like it was nothing and wandered over to a group of boars. She practically dropped her weapon on the neck of one of the passive mobs. The SERVER recognized the attack as a location critical hit. You know, something that happens for hitting a week spot or practically decapitating something. The damaged calculated must have barely been to be a one shot because it took a second for the pig to shatter.

There was a brief pause. Then there was what could only be described as the squeal of a demon rolled forth out of the mouthes of the other remaining hogs. All four of them rushed her.

I raised me sword and prepared to rush in and save her. Soul did not need any help. In fact, she brought a hand to her mouth and giggled. Then she held her sword with both hands and pointed it straight behind her. Her black sword flashed yellow as she used a CLEAVE out of pure instinct.

She turned around and faced me. She slightly tilted her head and game me a big smile. Rainbow shards scattered behind her like little fireworks or flower petals.

"How was that she asked," she asked.

I walked up to her and and put a hand on her shoulder; in a completely serious voice said, "I know that you just started playing, but," at this point I could not hold back my feelings anymore. "Dang girl! That may have just been the sexyist thing I have ever seen."

"Aww," she blushed. "You're just saying that."

The sun finally set and the moon came out. It was dark, but the moon was full and bathed the floor in silver blue light.

"Maybe I did," I admitted. "But no one can deny how beautiful you look in this light."

Soul practically melted right there. She couldn't stop blushing or smiling. Try as she might, she couldn't hold my gaze for longer than a moment.

I knew what I should do. I knew that I should ignore Blast clearing her throat. What was she, my mother? She would always try to interrupt me when I was with a girl. Next, I moved my hand from my shoulder to under her chin. I forced her to look me in the eyes.

"Do you," I said in a pleasant but flirty voice, "want to go hunting, with me?"

"I would love to."

I took her by the hand and lead her away. We ran. From the group, especially Blast, from the city, from our current worries and fears. I was able to completely forget Chuck. It was just me and her.

After we were out of sight, I slowed to a walk. Soul let go of my hand. We walked on without talking for a while. Just as it started to get awkward, she broke the silence.

"So tell me about yourself."

"Well..." I started. I didn't know if I should lie right now. I was a unique person for sure. But I might want to pretend to be the dream guy. I decided against it. RPGs had story lines but I wanted to be the hero in my story. "I am smart I guess."

"Cool. What is your best subject?"

"AP Calculus BC."

"Whoa. Are you in college?"

"Oh no. I'm a junior. I'm only 17."

"Really? I'm 18. I am suppose to graduate this year."

I spotted another group of boars. "Ready for some more?"

"Gladly."

We approached slowly. These were passive mobs so we could practically touch them before they would attack us. Surrounded by monsters, Soul raised her sword. There was nine of them.

"Wait for it," I said. "You may be able to get five in one go."

They boars started to circle. They were programmed to not attack first but their AI were also programmed to survive. We were clearly threats, but we had not started combat yet.

"Now!"

Soul CLEAVED four helpless mobs into colorful shards. The five remaining enemies charged all at one. Soul swiped her massive blade at four of them and did considerable damage. However, she did not notice the swine attacking her from behind.

"Look out," I yelled in warning. I dashed from where I was standing to guard her back. One LUNGE was more than enough to shatter it. Then I stepped in front of her protectively. With four precise movements, I sent my blade through four snouts.

"Wow," said Soul. "You are really good at this. You totally saved me right there."

"It was nothing. At level one, you could maybe take 10 hits. There was only five so you were pretty safe."

"You seem so natural at this." She paused for a second then spoke again with questioning fear. "You're not one of those beta testers are you?" It had only been two days, but rumors and bad mouthing betas was already started. I noted to tell Frenzy about keeping his past a secret later.

"No," I responded. "In real life I'm actually a fencer. That will help me with my defense. However, I hate the sword skills. It sucks that my manual attacks aren't that powerful."

"I think that you will still be better than people stronger than you. Natural skill will be a big part of this game"

I pulled her to me. "Stay close to me then. I'll keep you pretty face safe."

She looked up into my eyes. We stood with our eyes locked in the gaze of the other. After a few seconds, Soul turned away and blushed. We split with equally red faces.

We continued along out marry way slaying small groups of boars as we went. We avoided the larger groups and stayed with under 5 so we could kill all the monsters without giving them time to stage a counter attack.

While enjoying our moonlit stroll, Soul leveled up. The exp needed to reach level 2 wasn't too bad. However, reaching level three was liking running a marathon compared to a 100 m. It would take days to reach it. I had been getting similar exp as Soul and I was not even 10% there.

With a hundred floors to climb, I guess there would be time. Hopefully there would be much more exp on the next floor. I wondered how long it would take to find the first boss. I knew the first one would be a while. We currently didn't have much of a curve on the difficulty. I could sweep the area around the Town of Beginnings with ease, but is was only the first floor. I was then that I remember the shadow beast that Frenzy and I encounters earlier. Things would heat up. That's for sure.

Eventually, Soul and I happened upon a wolf. I remembered how one gave Blast trouble earlier.

"Do you want to go for it," I turned to Soul.

"Why not. Killing everything in one hit is so boring," she said with confidence.

"Killing everything in one hit is safe," I corrected her. "One the second day I tried to run away. I was attacked by some shadow beast that almost killed me in one hit. Trust me, safety is more important than fun." Not wanting to tell of my adventure of earlier, I changed the topic. "Now let's get it. We attack at the same time."

We approached slowly. This monster had a hostile AI. We didn't want to set it off till we were vary close. When we were about ten yards away, the wolf bared its fangs and got ready to attack.

"Now," I shouted.

I let off a LUNGE. My blade pieced the wolf's side. It did considerable damage, but it wasn't a weak zone. I just couldn't squeeze out those last points of damage. It didn't matter. Soul had my back. She pummeled the wolf into the ground with a SMASH.

I started to consider using a great sword. It had the best of both the ax and sword world. It had the basic one handed SWORD SKILLS as well as ax ones. On top of that it had CLEAVE which was a more powerful version of SLASH. I thought against it. I did not want to sacrifice speed for power. I would take three decent hits to one very powerful one.

I checked the time. It was two hours after sunset. I was starting to feel hungry.

"Good work today," I sincerely told Soul. "Let's head back to the inn."

We didn't encounter any trouble along the way. We slew a few more boars, but that was it.

I was actually starting to like Soul. What started out as some innocent flirting (that may or may not have been intended to annoy Blast) might turn into an actual relationship. I didn't really know. We would be stuck here for a few weeks. A lot could happen. Or not. My primary focus was still surviving. If this would keep me safe, I would do it. Then I thought about Chuck since the first time I left the Town of Beginnings. No. If it would keep her safe. That is what I should be thinking.

As we walked through city, the town was basically empty. There were still people walking around, but not the thousands trapped in the virtual walls. Soul and I didn't have to weave though crowds to get to the inn.

To say that Blast would be pissed would be an understatement. If the GAME DESIGNERS had a sense of humor, she would be on fire right now. I was scared I was going to die.

"What the heck were you thinking?" She screamed. She walked straight up to me and punched me in the face. I was thrown out of the door that I just walked in. Luckily I'm a gentleman and let Soul in first. Otherwise I would have slammed into her.

SAO did not have normal pain sensors. Instead, you got a tingling sensation. Like when your arm falls asleep from lack of blood flow. The bores provided an almost unnoticed tingle. Almost dying was uncomfortable. Blast's punch was practically real pain.

I walked into the inn feeling like a holy man. That's because Blast destroyed all the pixels in my fave. There was just a basic outline in red. It was here that my group a friends started to call the rendition under the small layers of pixels the ABYSS. Frenzy knew what it was as well as Bast. Shine, however, could have shattered glass with her scream.

I sat down at the bar counter. "Calm down," I said. "I will heal in a few minutes." I started to address Blast without looking up. "I was thinking I would try to enjoy myself. This is a game. Games are fun. Why should I feel bad about taking Soul away from your killjoy ways."

"Bast is not a killjoy," interjected Soul. "Yes I had fun, but she is still my friend."

"In that case I apologize." Blast stuck her younger out at me.

"Let's turn in for the night," said Frenzy. "We are all under a lot of stress. Perhaps some sleep will calm all our nerves. Till tomorrow good ladies." He waved as he walked up the stairs. Everyone followed him up.

"Our rooms are right next to each other idiot," said Blast as she walked up the stairs by him.

It's always the pretty ones, I mentally sighed as I followed. I looked ahead to Soul. Okay maybe not all of them.


	6. Chapter 6

Ch 6 Play nice with friends

So next in the story comes the two months of people freaking out and stuff. I don't really want to do research to find out all the things that happened so I'm going sum that up for the people that don't know. Then I'm going to proceed to make up my own story. I will look up the themes and bosses for the floors provided.

Everything skips around a bit as I provide all the backstory but next chapter will go back to linear story telling.

Frenzy and I did end up staying with the girls, and Blast. Living together did provide financial benefits, I guess. The rooms were a whopping 1000 a night. But because of all the sharing we only needed two rooms. Between all of us, rent was low. However, Frenzy and I had the most money, from our early high level kills and constant ones that followed (it helped that Frenzy knew how to make money from his beta knowledge) and usually paid for it. Our generosity did not go undervalued. Some of the girls did not fight, but they were still valued through the other skills they learned.

Shine went right to work on all noncombatant skills. She cooked, she sewed, she bartered, heck she even learned black smiting. She was a big spender so when she learned the BARTERING, everyone was pleased. Everyone loved what she made so there was no complaint.

Then there was Morg. Morg, she...well she tried. I don't really know what she did. Sometimes she came hunting, but she wasn't much help. I hate to be mean, but I think she knew she was worthless too. She put all her POINTS into HP and DEFENSE. She was a good defensive wall, though meat shield would be more accurate. She even learned a skill that increased the chances of mobs targeting her. She rarely got kills (except the ones that barely survive the attacks of others), but she tried.

No one was hard on her. Compared to thousands of others, she was not dead weight. Hard core gamers made up a large portion of the SAO victims. But many were nerds living in parents basements; they could not take care of themselves. The others were lucky people like me that got a copy or the game from a beta tester friend or won it in an obscure competition. There were also game reviewers and people with connections to higher ups and sponsors. Many of these could take care of themselves but lack the knowledge to earn money and such. Not to say that no one flourished. A few months into the game, all the basic survival skills were learned and SAO thrived like any good RPG would.

With such a demographic, financial conditions were poor for many players. My group lived like kings compared to the many starving players around us. Crime started to rise. Having a friend that assisted in shopping and tried to find quests was helpful in comparison.

The worst part of it all was the mass deaths. A bit after opening ceremonies, one brave guy claimed it all to be a hoax. That dying was, in fact, the only way log out. He jumped off one of the walls and out of Aincrad. A few minutes later the revival room in the center of town started to glow. It was replaced by a giant black monument covered in names. The name of the player that jumped glowed blue. It was then crossed out and next it was written "fell from a tall place." Right or wrong, he was not coming back. And thus the death of every player was recorded. For the next two months, the death record did not stop flashing.

Why were the death counts so high? It was only the first level. Simple. Ignorance. Players did not know how to play and they were scared and weak. Ten hits from boars sound like a bunch considering that to fully heal took about five minute out of combat. Not to mention that they died with one well-placed sword skill or two bad ones. However, freezing in the face of danger added many hits. Not to mention that figuring out sword skill with no guidance was not likely. A normal attack did barely anything compared to the raw power of a skill. Taking on one monster became difficult. Two could only be done by athletes or people that knew combat. Fighting three without skills was unheard of. It was too bad that boars spawned in groups of around five with as many as ten.

Resources were scarce and real life friends were the only people that you could trust. But what were the chances of finding one or two people among ten thousand. Solo players had the biggest payoff but also the highest mortality rates. Competition between players was high for the first few months so there were many solo players. Knowledge was treasured and there were many jerky players that doomed the noobs by deliberately withheld information about sword skills or other tidbits of knowledge.

With a hundred floors, Aincrad could easily support the ten thousand players. On the other hand, one floor was nowhere near enough. Resources would be scarce till floor three and the competition would not die down till around ten. Risk and rewards were not weighed equally. Many only considered the pay offs, not even considering their chances of failure. This led to more deaths. The culprits were none other than quest.

Don't get me wrong, quest were great. They gave money, items, skill exp, even new skills and combat exp. They were the main way to level up. However, many of the combat related ones were not suited for a single level one player. To make things worse, it was not widely known that only items had to be shared. Quest were designed for a party to take on together with every member earning equal exp and money and while it was hard to split the loot across a full party of seven, four people would receive a good portions of the reward. Because so few knew how quest rewards worked they were often not shared. To make things worse, NPCs could only give out so many quests at a time. Once they gave out all their quest there was a cool down before more became available.

This led to NPC baby guarding. As soon as the cool down was over players would swarm in attempts to get a quest. There was also a sad part to this system. If a player died while on a quest then the quest became available. It was sad, but many secretly, and sometimes openly, hoped for death. This also meant that hard quest killed players quickly. As soon as one player lost their life there would be another running over to be next. Needless to say, the strong and experienced players, particularly some of the beta testers, grew exponentially while a noob making it to level two was something to celebrate. Soon the hating of all beta testers was common. This was still unfair. Beta testers were a source of knowledge, but due to fear, they started to hide their secrets just as everyone thought they were originally doing. However, there was still death even among the betas. Some thought themselves invincible because of their knowledge. This was a deadly mistake for many. Some simply had no idea what they were doing even though they logged hours in the beta.

Luckily for me, there was a perfect seven in my group and one of them was Frenzy. The second day we were together we formed a party and reaped the rewards ever since. We had plenty of money and everyone leveled up. However, not all levels are created equal. Base stats pretty much acted as multipliers. More strength: more damage, but less strength and a better sword did more damage. With a low weapon level, even spending all your points in strength would not match someone who spread their points and had a better sword. Raising skill levels were quicker, but without constantly using the best equipment available, they were just numbers. In this way, the system kept things balanced between improving skills and improving equipment.

The one exception to this rule was rare drops. Rare drops had much lower level requirements then weapons of similar power. Both Frenzy and I had rare drops and were set. This is part of the reason why were always had so much more money than Blast, Eon, and Soul.

Since raw stats were considered combat related they also rose randomly in combat though certain actions like absorbing hits or aggressively attacking were more likely to raise defense and strength respectively. Morg and Shine were way behind in power. They barely had any combat skill ex. Shine, if she were to ever step outside the walls again, would have to use the knife and armor that she used on day one. She was also a few levels behind from never getting ex from killing monsters. At least Morg had high armor from all the hits she took.

Here was our basic schedule. Wake up and eat breakfast from Shine. Next we decided on our sub teams. One person, usually Morg, would stay with Shine while the others went questing or hunting. To be more productive, we would form two hunting parties, usually boys and girls but we did mix it up from time to time. The groups would return independently for lunch then go back out. We would all meet for dinner them baby guard for some quests. After a few hours, successful or not, we would turn in for the night and then the repeat the next day.

Shine would buy food and other materials to increase skill levels. She used to sit in the center square. She stopped visiting the monument all together after Bloody Sunday.

Bloody Sunday was the day with the more deaths than any day. Over a hundred died. Thirty of which happened within five minutes. For the entire five minutes, part of the monument was constantly glowing. Many of the people watching froze in shook. Some even started to cry. The black rock glowed more than seventy additional times throughout the day and drew a crowd of over a thousand people. Bloody Sunday was the day that many gave up hope of living in the real world once again. It was also the day the Liberation Army formed. They were small at first, but they grew as the months past, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Needless to say with hopelessness comes anarchy. The "orange player" was discovered that week. For the safety of Shine, and everyone, the seven of us left to a different town. The going was ruff, but with Frenzy and I already at level nine, we managed.

Two weeks later, Blast, Frenzy and I made the trip back. There was a meeting that all players level seven and over were invited to. Blast made it at eight. Eon and Soul were six and did not make the cut. Morg and Shine were at four, but had no combat skills and would not have come anyway.

The three of us stood in the ally that led into the assembly. The meeting was in about three hours so we had some time to kill. Frenzy figured it would be a good idea to see who would show up early. Those that did would be the more responsible players and good candidates for future allies. He knew the more powerful players, or at least the higher level ones, would be unwilling to give up a few hours of grinding and would show up right before.

Sadly, there was an important classification that he forgot. This type of player was rarer in the beta. However, with the high risks of SAO, this player became much more common. We would encounter one soon enough.

Anyway, I had nothing better to do so I spent my time messaging Soul. Even after two whole months, nothing had happened. Okay, that is not completely true. We went questing together from time to time. Heck sometimes we just hung out in town like normal teenagers. It helped that I actually had a job of killing monsters and had money to waste on girls. But something was keeping us apart, even more than Blast. My best bet was that it was fear. Fear of knowing that we could die anytime. Ya our group was skilled, but we did have some closeish calls. 30% hp may sound like a lot, but it scary knowing that a critical hit would shatter your body and mind into thousands of little pieces. Soul had never seen anyone die, but the same was not true for Frenzy and I. There were visions of Chuck that never left my mind and another. Frenzy and I went to more dangerous places than the others. He knew the layout so we were safe. Er. Yes there was much to be scared of in SAO, but I think the fear that kept her from me was actually me.

I admit it, I loved living in SAO. Ya I got scared. And sure I missed my family and the real world, but I was in paradise. I got into it, especially in combat. I wouldn't say that I would go on killing rampages, but that's only because one instance taught me to always stay connected to my actions. I could fight by pure instinct, but it was not safe.

It all happened about a month into the game. Our group snagged a difficult quest: UNPILLAGE THE VILLAGE. It was a special type of quest, a WORLD QUEST. A WORLD QUEST was a rare find. It could only be taken once, pass or fail. The outcome was a permanent change to the floor or even all of Aincrad. Of course this one was only the floor. Long story short a goblin tribe had taken a village and held all of the villagers hostage. If we succeeded then the village would be saved and would open a blacksmith that could upgrade weapons, an herb shop, and of course an inn. There was not much but the items and the whole forge itself were not common on the first floor. And as added bonus the party that cleared the quest would get a permanent 50% discount on everything. The thing was if we failed the village would be burned to the ground and none of the NPCs would ever respawn. Naturally this was a big deal so everyone (except Shine) came on this quest.

"I see the village up ahead," said Blast. "It's maybe two hundred yards past the tree line. Stupid guards. They are all holding torches so I can see exactly where they are."

"There is a tall wooden fence around the whole town," she continued. "The only way in is through the main gate. Quick down!" Everyone fell flat on their bellies. A few seconds later a goblin holding a torch walked right along the tree line we were hiding in. Luckily there were lots of bushes to offer cover.

"Why do I always get stuck on patrol," it muttered as it walked by.

"Okay," resumes Blast. There are four armored guards blocking the gate. But before we rush the village we need to take out all the sentry. There is one, two, three," she paused. "Six sentry. Two patrol and four stationary. Hydro."

"Yo," I responded.

"I need you to assassinate the two walkers and the far side stationary that doesn't have any forest cover by it."

"Why you in charge?"

"Because I got the quest. Can you do it or not?"

"You know I can."

"Good. Just know if you mess up then we fail the quest. It says that if the sentry raises the alarm before we enter the village then the goblins will burn it down and kill anything inside. Okay so everyone will take a guard in groups of two. I'll take Morg. Frenzy, with your sword you should be able to kill a sentry with one combo. Eon, you take Soul." She turned back to me. "Send a message when you are in position. It doesn't matter what. We all attack as soon as we get it. Don't waste time reading. Oh and by the way," she added, "the next walker will be here in 15, 14, 13."

"You couldn't have given me more notice?" I complained under my breath. It didn't matter; I had more than enough time. With quick, memorized movement I unequipped sword and equipped Last Breath. I had gone through the menu some many times that I could almost change faster than how long it took to replace my weapon. With ten seconds, I creped to the trunk of the farthest out tree.

"He it comes," I whispered as I could start to hear the goblin's complaints.

I let it walk right past me then sprang. Goblins were about four six so overpowering one was easy. With my right hand over its mouth I brought my knife up to its neck and pulled. This was the one reason I did not delete my knife skill: assassinations. Knifes did continuous damage when in a target. Take the not so powerful standard attack and get a location crit on the neck. Keep pulling and the damage adds up till you actually decapitate the target.

Since I used a hand to keep the goblin from screaming, its head stayed in my arms as its body fell forwards to the ground. Of course, they both shattered into rainbow shards at the same time.

I quick tapped the okay button that appeared on the victory menu and was off. I stayed in the cover of the trees and ran counter clock wise around the village the opposite way of the moving sentry. I soon crossed its path and dispatched it just like the first.

Next came the hard part. The village was surrounded by forest on three sides. The goblin that I was supposed to kill was about a hundred feet from the closest tree. However, there was a reason why Blast me picked to kill it. I had acquired a few skills that were perfect for being sneaky like this. One of them actually was SNEAKING. With my current mastery, I could not been seen by monsters at a lower level then me when I remained still. The problem was I still had to move to get to the goblin.

I stopped at the last tree and planned my strategy. I watched the eye movement of the goblin. I scanned back and forth about every one second. Ya I could sneak a step or two in every time he looked away but that would take forever. I looked around at the environment around me. I picked up a small stone. I pondered my next decision carefully. I could throw the rock directly at the goblin and stun it for like a second. But that would only give me a second maybe a max of four to run the hundred feet a kill it before it sounded the alarm. It was very risky. The other thing I could do was throw it across the field and hope the sound distracted the goblin long enough for me to run over to where it was now. I knew that its AI would take it back to the same spot so to get an assassination would be easy to set up. The risk was being to slow and seen or worse, the goblin sounded the alarm from the get go.

I opted with number two. I brought my arm up and felt the SYSTEM take control of my arm. I aimed away the goblin and let loose.

It worked perfectly. I managed to hit an unseen rock in the grass with a loud crack. The goblin walked over to check it out. Without hesitation I ran over to where it was and planted myself. I didn't move so my SNEAKING skill activated and I became invisible to the level four monster. I planned it so perfectly that the goblin stopped a mere foot in front me. Feeling greedy, I used my other sneaky skill, THIEVING. The goblin didn't have much on it, but hey, getting some col at 100% success rate it never anything to complain about.

I started a group message. "Sorry, Blast, but I am killing your boyfriend." I might pay for that one but I didn't care. She couldn't do anything till we completed the quest anyway.

I felt like experimenting, even though now was not a good time. I stood up and tapped the goblin on his shoulder. He freaked out. He must have jumped three feet. Anyway he turned around and took a step towards me. I didn't want to figure out if it would raise the alarm if it ran into me so I attacked. With lightning speeds only achievable in virtual reality my knife pierced the goblin's heart. I stabbed with so much force that we both fell to the ground.

"KNIFE skill level increased to level 35/1000.

SNEAKING skill level increased to level 97/1000." I closed the window with a smile.

The six of us regrouped back in the forest. The real fight was up ahead. I pulled out my favorite item. A Music Crystal. This thing was awesome. It was the closest thing to a link to the real word. It came with three settings: personal, party, and background. I set is to party and cranked up the volume of some heavy metal.

If you don't know what I mean check out Waking the Demon by Bullet for My Valentine.

That was the best thing about the girl. They did not care what music I played.

With rocking guitar blasting, we awesomely strut over to the goblin guards. There agro range was about 50 feet so we weren't rushed.

As the distances closed I equipped my sword. In a blue flashed, it started to materialize. I violently grabbed the hilt like I was drawing my sword from blue lightning. Frenzy kept his curved sword in the small of his back with his shield on his shoulders. He spun his sword to pull it out of his sheath. He kept it spinning so fast in his hand that it looked like a solid disk. In a swift motion he tossed it into the air. With the sword continuing to spin he stopped it by catching it by the hilt. Blast kept her sword and shield on upside down. She did a round off and her sword slip free of its scabbard. With the graces of the gymnast she clearly was, she caught her sword and equipped her shield. The other girls found it easier to walk with their big weapons.

"Ready or not, here we come," said Blast.

"Let's go," we said. Or at least Blast said. I was starting to go into a battle rage and was really feeling the music. I yelled like a screamo singer.

With that we charged like six bullets into battle. I had invest the most points into agi and reached the goblin guards first. They had about the same hp as any goblin but their improved armor and weapons increased their levels.

The goblin that I faced off against wore chain armor with a helmet and wooden shield. Its weapon was a club. For someone if my caliber, it was like sparing with a training dummy.

I faked a low stab and the goblin left himself completely open high. With speeds rivaling a sword skill I stabbed the goblin the throat. It was a good attack doing about 20% damage. I did the same trick again with same results. On the third try the goblin's AI updated and guarded its head. It left its legs wide open. I slashed the right one with a back hand and quickly followed up by stabbing the guard's left knee. The goblin jumped back a bit, finally breaking my onslaught of attacks. With less than half its health remaining, it made its only attack. The goblin swung is club in a great arc, it's most powerful attack, in attempt smash my head. I had the advantage. I had already killed many goblin guards and expected the attack. I knew I only needed to take two steps back to dodge. I also knew that the goblin would pause after its attack for about half a second with its shield down and neck once again wide open. It would be a shame to let such an opportunity go to waste. Like I've said, I did not like sword skills, but I made exceptions for moments like this. I must admit, I loved the sound of charging up my HORIZONTAL SLASH (which will forever now be known as H SLASH).

It was a direct hit, as expected when leaning on the SEVER. With fight over I check on my companions. I glanced over at Frenzy first. He was doing fine. I always thought he looked like he was dancing while he fought. All he really did was chain sword skills. With beta knowledge, skilling was second nature to him. With his current sword level his chain lasted twenty seconds, but he claimed that during the beta he could go for sixty. I guess that's why he liked the curved sword, more skills.

He was almost done with his own combo. He hadn't put as many points into str as me so he was a bit slower at killing. He also mainly ignored shields and armor. Blocking a skill still did damage. Plus when you have a twenty second rush, you are bound to get a few good hits in.

His guard shattered a few seconds after mine. I glanced over to Blast. Her goblin was had less than 20% health. One more solid hit would shatter it. As was to be expected, it used its big overhead swing. Blast expertly stepped back two steps. However, she did not kill it. To my surprise, she shield bashed it and called for a switch. Morg came forward and stabbed it through the chest. Their goblin was the last to shatter. Eon and Soul had a more brutish but efficient way of killing. They basically took turns slapping monsters with their oversized weapons. They were more elegant when fighting alone, but they didn't need to do much else when together.

Blast called us all in before we entered the village.

"Okay team," she started. "The hard part is over. The important part now is to not get surrounded. All the enemies are fairly week. Goblins take about 5 seconds each and guards take about 15. We need to slow them down so we don't have to fight more than three each at a time. Stay next to a wall or building or whatever. Make them face them in numbers we like or slow them enough to deal with it."

She walked away from the cover of the fence to the gate.

"There are at least 30 in the square," she reported. "That's starts things out rough but we can handle it. Hydro," she turned to me.

"Yo."

"Sneak around to the far side between the two shops. That should be a big enough bottle neck for you to handle. If you can lure about half of them over there and hold it for about forty second then we win."

"Hold on one second. You want me to take on 15 enemies for almost a minute while you warn everyone else to be careful with a fifth of that number. Do you want me to die for you guys?"

"That's what the bottle neck is for. They will come one at a time. Kill one every three seconds and they won't surround you."

"So if I heard you right you want me to tank it out like a one man army and kill the same amount of enemies as all you guys in the same amount of time plus the time it takes for you guys to get to me?"

"Pretty much."

"Screw you," I said getting mad.

"What's the matter? Is the oh so mighty Hydro afraid of some goblins? To scarred to take one for the team?" She started getting way up into my face

"Screw you," I reappeared with anger. "You're a horrible strategist and I don't need a team." I shoved her out of my way and blindly charged into the village.

In hein sight, it was the stupidest thing I've done in a while. To make it worse, my life was on the line rather than an arm or leg. Body parts would at least heal. This was stupider than the time I broke my leg by taking a skateboard off a BMX jump. More dangerous than when I jumped off a cliff over 50 feet above the water surface.

Once I reached the hoard of goblins, I realized that I had no idea what I was going to do. I had a sword. That was it. How the heck was I going to take on thirty opponents with just a sword? Well I had brains. Then I remembered that this was a video game. I had faced many weak opponents at the same time in other games. These things were faster than zombies so using a "rape circle" would not help me. Then I remembered a sword game where part of the final boss was a horde. What I needed to do is keep them bunched up. Close targets can get hit by the same attack.

As I approached the group of enemies I made a half circle around them. This tightened their grouping to the extreme as they all tried to change direction at the same time.

I gave the goblins a few seconds to come into sword range. As soon as they were in range I started my barrage of attacks. The height of the goblins probably saved me. My first h slash (not in caps so not a skill) slid through the closest three goblins' necks. My backhand follow up nearly shattered them. I quickly finished the two more on my left with a diagonal slash. The right I stabbed in the chest.

I was rather surprised by how well it worked. I fell back the first time having already defeated ten percent of my foes without using a single skill. I must have gotten good to have such high damage output with just my regular attacks. Yes I knew that I would have taken out all three in one hit had I used an H SLASH but three hits each was still impressive. I might actually live through this.

The horde was just so nicely packed. If they were all packed together like sardines then surely taking out a large number would be like shooting fish in a barrel. I took a risk and LUNGEd right into the center.

Ya, not worth it. At all. I damaged ten, but I only finished five. So there I was surrounded by over twenty opponents. I would die in about fifteen hits or about six seconds. It should have been five. Thank you battle healing. But ya, I was screwed. I put my sword out in front of me and just ran. I managed to hit five more on my way out but got hit twelve times.

Remember what I said about thirty percent hp was scary? Ya, I was just over ten. I turned back around. I was at least going to stare death in the face. Luckily for me, I came into this death game with friends. Frenzy was always there to add the strength of his blade to mine.

His dance saved me. With each skill, at least one goblin died. H SLASH to BACKHAND chained to a LUNGE and ending with a VERT SLASH. That was twelve kills right there. The remaining fifteen all had some damage on them. Though the guards had shields so they barely got any.

I should have stayed out, but I was not that kind of friend. I wasn't going to let a friend risk himself to fight my battles. Sure I was only fifteen percent life and should hang back a bit long, but I just couldn't. Frenzy continued his run that included three more skills. Two of them slew three goblins. The last one, the WRATH, was directed on one of the ten guards. The initial hit was blocked by its shield. Fortunately, the follow through after the backflip split the guard's helmet.

While Frenzy used his last three skills I cleaned up the two remaining normal goblins with a vert slash and a stab respectively. I turned around to see Frenzy backflip onto a guard. He put out some good damage but it wasn't enough to shatter his opponent. After all, the first hit was blocked and much of the damage of the second was absorbed by the split helmet. Needless to say, he was not in a good spot. With no more skills to chain into, he had to take the brief cool down. He had taken a few hit, but his defense was much higher than mine. He was sitting pretty above ninety, but the overhead slam coming his way would still hurt. I came to his rescue by jumping at the monster and attacking it with an overhead smash of my own. The stupid goblin didn't even bother to turn around. With no helmet for protection, it would never get a chance to.

With nine mobs left, I could not do it by myself. I couldn't even split the numbers with Frenzy. We had to work together. I turned to the next closest guard. The height of my enemies really worked into my favor. I held the hilt of my sword over my head and leaped again. I got really lucky with that hit. As I stabbed my sword down it slipped right over the guard's shield and into its exposed face. I KICKED it right in the chest and SWITCHED with Frenzy. He was ready at then point and dashed forwards and slammed the goblin with a VERT SLASH. He DASHED through the shards to his next opponent. This guard happened to have a short sword. It never stood a chance. The guard screwed itself over with its first stab. Frenzy knew exactly what he was going to do. He blocked the attack with his shield. He angled it so the sword glances off and kept going behind him. With the goblin a mere foot away, be could use his most powerful skill. A curved sword exclusive called GUTTER. With this short range skill Frenzy stabbed his curved tip into the gut of the guard. The SEVER then guided his blade forward at the same time rotating it so it was like if went in strait. Then, once the curve was all the way through and point up, the came and great tug and Frenzy pulled his sword straight out, greatly expanding the hole in his opponent's chest. This move was so devastating that he downed the monster in one hit. The rainbow shards that danced around him like falling flower pedals were much more beautiful than what a real life blood splatter would be. Sword art indeed.

Of course the computerized goblin guards did not appreciate art and continued their assault. With Frenzy's chain over, he was wide open to the goblin holding an ax approaching him. Being the team player that I was, I got ready to block the hit I knew was coming. Thanks to my high agi I managed to get I front of Frenzy in time. I supported the other end of my sword in my right hand and braced myself on one knee, because you know, goblins are short. Luckily for me and my now twenty percent health, the overhead smash bounced right off. Being low I stabbed the staggering guard in the foot and pinned it to the ground.

Frenzy, now recovered behind me, took advantage of the opening. The let off a couple slashes at the goblin's open head. To finish it, he put the curve of his sword behind the headed and beheaded the goblin like he had a sickle.

Now we were down to six. We fell back and the goblins regrouped. Then Frenzy and I spit up and ran around the village a bit. We rejoined at the center. This bit of stalling allowed me to recover to a not too scary thirty-five hp and Frenzy got all the way back to full. All our skill we ready to be used again except for Frenzy's powerful WRATH and GUTTER. We also split the goblins into two groups of three.

Standing back to back, Frenzy called out the next move. "Switch me low,"

"Switch me high," I finished. I did not like skills but when an opportunity such as this arose, I never wasted it. This combo would still be kicking butt on floor fifty.

Once the goblins got closer we started our team attack. I started by using EMBRACER to punch a guard with a downwardly angles punch. Man doing that martial arts quest was one of the greatest things I've ever done. At the same time Frenzy used UPPER-FLING, a unique skill that flung the target to into the air.

This is where the fun began. Both of us SWITCHed. Next I used SONIC LEAP and as I was up in the air and out of Frenzy's way. He was then clear to LUNGE. I landed in a three point stance as Frenzy cleaned up with a VERT SLASH.

As soon as my cool down was up I charged back into the fray. With only two opponents left, victory was in the bag. Frenzy took a hit while he was frozen but he was fine. He went back to his skill dance. With him doing his thing I turned to my own opponents. They were at about seventy life from all the hits Frenzy and I did while fighting the horde.

At this point I was really feeling the battle adenine. I just rushed the first one. I bat the shield away with my fist attack and just went to town slashing it. It managed to hit me twice before it died, a drawback of going berserk and throwing defense and strategy to the wind.

Right before I killed the guard, I used another fun skill. This I one was called SKYBOMB. It was another arial skill only it focused on the landing, not the air. It started by doing a weak attack of kicking off a grounded enemy. Has it been real life, said enemy would have to be like six feet tall. Good thing the SERVER didn't care about such physics and worked fine on the four six guard.

Once I was in the air, the SEVER guided me into dive bombing the next target. With my sword straight down, I crushed the goblin. My sword was a bit longer than three feet. I slammed the goblin so hard that it went all the way through the goblin and into the ground.

Frozen with my sword in the ground I watched the shards as Frenzy dispatch one goblin and move on to the next. The last one. The one that almost cost Frenzy his life. Admitting it was my fault, but still.

So I was in full rage right then. Well not rage. I was not mad per say I just wanted to destroy anything I could get my hands on. I don't know why I felt the need to get the last kill, but I did. I pulled my sword out and pointed forward towards the last monster like I was directing a charge. I called for a switch, but instead of waiting for Frenzy to respond, I charged up a movement skill called CHARGE. It was a simple enough skill. You shoot off like a bullet cutting through anything in your path.

The last mob was almost dead. Frenzy didn't see a point in SWITCHing. He finished with a VERT SQUARE. He took the cool down. He could not move. I kept going. He was in my path. I could not stop. He took the hit. It was my hit. His hp gauge started to slowly tick down. It showed no sign of stopping. It was Chuck all over again.

**SO THAT IS THE END OF THIS CHAPTER. IT IS A BIT LONGER THEN WHAT I USUALLY RIGHT, ACTUALLY IT IS ABOUT DOUBLE. IF READ THIS STORY AND LIKED IT FILL FREE TO FOLLOW OR LEAVE A REVIEW. IT REALLY HELPS MOTIVATE ME TO UPDATE WHEN I KNOW PEOPLE ARE WAITING FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER. IF YOU LIKE SWORDS AND POKEMON, FILL FREE TO CHECK OUT MY OTHER STORY. WITH SCHOOL STARTING, I SHOULD HAVE THE NEXT CHAPTER FOR THAT STORY UP BY THE END OF THE MONTH, OR SOONER IF I GET ANY REVIEWS TO MOTIVATE ME TO UPDATE SOON. TILL NEXT TIME.**


	7. Chapter 7

**So I have decided to switch which story I update every chapter. Thanks to Tanzar81 for following. As always, if you like what you read, feel free to follow or leave a review. It really helps to know that people like my story. If you want the next chapter faster, I would highly encourage it. **

SAO Ch 7

The Effort of Sneaking Home

There is this thing about big damage is SAO. A player or mob would initially take about half the damage and then their hp would slowly trick down form there. So to instantly kill a mob, you need some massive overkill. Damage would finish with about a max of about ten seconds. I think this was a protection for players that were attack by mobs out of their league. Not that a weak player wouldn't die instantly form a direct hit from a boss. This gave an ally a bit of time and whip out a healing crystal and save a life. It had to be a crystal as potions and food healed over time. Too bad for Frenzy, but I didn't know any of this. Even if I did, I didn't have any crystals.

"FRENZY!" I screamed in pure horror. I watched as my friend's life literally ticked away in front of me.

I dropped my sword and fell to my knees. When I hit Frenzy, he went flying. He was lying on the ground in front of me.

His health was at under ten. Then it stopped. I let out a bid sigh. I looked up and saw it.

CONGRATULATIONS

We had completed the quest. The village was now a safe zone. Frenzy would have died, but he could no longer take damage. I checked my own bar and saw that it was at about nineteen.

I fell back. That was too close. So close to dying, and under friendly fire at that. How the heck were we supposed to survive till floor 100?

At the center of the village, a green sphere appeared. It quickly expanded to cover entire village and disappeared. This invisible shield would keep all monsters out. It could be seen whenever something passed through it, or something not allowed ran into it.

A group of about ten villages walked into view. Some old guy, probably the chief, gave some dialog about saving the village. I really wasn't paying attention. I sort of just went through some crap.

After he finished his quest speech, he noticed me. "Criminal!" he shouted. "Criminal in the village."

I looked above my head and saw the orange cursor. Dang. The villagers swarmed me. I couldn't take damage, but the unsought was intense. It was like being in the center of a mosh pit. I knew that they would never stop so I just ran to the fence and then outside. Strangely enough, none of the girls had moved since the battle had started.

"What. The heck. Did. You. Do?" was the first thing to come out of Blast's mouth. No "are you okay" or "you did." Just straight to questioning me.

"I completed your stupid quest, that's what."

"What the heck happened with Frenzy? His hp just started drop and you happened to be right next to him? What hit him? A true friend would have taken a blow like that."

"What about me? Did you not see how much hp I had? I was just a close to dying as he was. The real question is why was he the only one to come help? If this is real, then we should always be trying to saving anyone and everyone. Unless you are some heartless girl that like watching the people around her die."

Blast had no response. I clearly had her beat. We may only be allies, but we tried to be friends. We had already saved each other dozens of times already; if that is not enough to be friends, then I don't know what is.

"I think," started Soul. "I think I saw what happened."

I switched to a gentle tone to address the girl I cared about-not that I didn't care for Blast; she was just more like the twin sister that I never wanted but love anyway. "What is in the past," I paused to let the meaning sink in, "is the past. All we can do is learn from this experience and be thankful that everything turned out all right. Now we know to never ease your guard at the end of the fight. It is not over till the system decides it's over."

Soul realized that I knew what happened, but didn't want to talk about it. Just then, Blast got a reminder of an unread message. She read it. Then she gave me one of her signature looks.

...Oops. I think Blast is responsible for like half my points in defense. I swear, one time after she hit me, her strength rose. At least know I had enough defense to stand my ground. She used to be able to send me flying, but now she rarely knocked me down. At least she has a balanced speed point distribution unlike mine that put nearly half of my points in strength.

I wasn't sure what I should do next. I couldn't go to the village. The closest city was too far to walk, especially this late. I was just kind of stuck. I used my better judgment to know that now was not the best time to pick a fight with Blast.

The girls went into the village, I assume to get a room. They didn't come back. After about an hour, the first wolf attacked. Wolves were altogether rather harmless. If you didn't know how to handle them, they could be trouble, but handling them was simple. The only had two attacks: a pounce and a bite. They pounced if they were far and bite up close. The secret to killing them was stabbing them in the month. Or be Eon and hit them with any attack.

Wolves had a stat layout similar to me. Huge attack and decent speed, but no defense. Nature's glass cannons you could say. As I said earlier, wolves weren't that big of a deal. I could tank a couple of hits and they could take only a bad hit from me. I could quite literally fight them all day and be fine. Night, however, was a different story.

I had to sleep at some point and if I was attack by two or three wolves it was game over. I was royally screwed over by some simple villagers.

The girls went to the inn, and, I assume, got a room. They didn't come out till the next morning.

Come 6:00 I had killed three wolves and two goblins. I saw lots more, but SNEAKING had limited what saw me. Wolves could pick me out pretty well. They used smell as well a sight. Their aggressive AI had them smell their surrounding area about every minute. If I was nearby when they scanned, then they attacked. I just killed the goblins because they had a decent drop rate for weak potions.

I killed 8 wolves in the next hour alone. By this time it was dark and I had been awake for fourteen hours of hard work. I was starting to get tired. To try to stay awake I messaged Frenzy.

"Are you okay?"

"Ya" he replied about a minute later.

"So um..."

"No big deal"

"But it was all on me. You should have died. The safe zone saved you."

"Ya it saved me. I'm okay. No problem."

"I'll make it up to you."

"The way I see it, we are already dead. All we can do is help the others."

I really liked that. "Is that why you are always the gentleman?"

"Ya. At least I can say I died a good person. I just have a bit longer to prove it now."

"Nice to know you're not mad."

"Na, man, we're bros to end. Anyway, what are you doing out so late?"

Frenzy didn't realize that I could not come into the village without being mobbed by the villagers. "You know just some late night grinding."

"You should probably turn in soon."

We had been messaging on and off for like an hour now. And I. Well I fell asleep. Come ten minutes later, Frenzy messaged me again. I didn't respond. Frenzy wondered where I was so h checked my position on the map. When he saw that I was right out of the village, he decided to come and see me. He probably saved my life.

"Yo, Hydro," called Frenzy, "where you be at?"

He walked through the village gate and into the forest. He looked at is map window again to confirm my position and set off. I was maybe two hundred yards away sleeping under a tree. Because of my SNEAKING skill I would have been invisible to anything under my level, including Frenzy. However, I was Frenzy's friend so he could always see my cursor. When he saw it floating over nothing, he was really confused.

Just then, a pack of four wolves appeared. The lead wolf stopped to smell the air. Of course, the entire pack started dashing straight at me. It took Frenzy a few seconds, but he realized that I was still in fact under my cursor. Without thinking, he charged into combat. He was slower, but he did manage to beat the last wolf. He used a MARTIAL ART skill called DASHKICK. It was a basic skill where you keep your speed up, but move in the air with an outstretched foot. You stopped when you hit a target, but the target would go flying.

Frenzy made direct contract with the wolf. It was sent back a solid fifteen feet. Needless to say, the sound was loud enough to wake me. I awoke to two wolves diving at me. I had little time to react so I just took the first hit to give my time to prepare for the second. I unsheathe my sword and stretched it straight out. The second wolf was already in the air and was unable to prevent itself from impaling its head on my blade.

Frenzy chased after the wolf he attacked. First he used an EMBRACER then finished with a KICK. MARTIAL ARTS skills were powerful, but they could even be used when the only thing you have equipped is clothes. They came in handy in extending SKILL chains or when a weapon broke. While no one in our group had done so yet, Frenzy warned that it happened almost commonly on the upper floors.

I charged the wolf that had not attacked yet. I used a technique that I learned from using knives. I called it the rape stab. It was a fun way to kill weak mobs by rapidly stabbing them.

Frenzy came and stood by me. The first wolf turned back towards us. I sheathed my sword.

"Cool down?" I asked.

"3 seconds," he replied.

"I'll take it."

"Now" said Frenzy a few seconds later.

We charged the wolf and released a double EMBRACER right to the face. No basic monster could stand that amount of raw damage. It was moments like these when being left handed came in handy. If I was on the right, our attack radius could be a small as four inches. Plus we looked really cool when we killed something together then turned and high-five.

"Man, you are always baling me out," I said.

"Least I could do," he replied. "I wouldn't leave anyone to die, especially not here."

"Okay. Just promise me one thing. If it comes done to me or you or even someone else, don't pick me."

"Are you sure," I was expecting him to sound shocked or even resist, but he sounded calm and wanted to make sure I meant what I said.

"Ya. Chuck died without even knowing it was for me. I want that life to live on through someone else."

"Don't tell me you're looking for death already."

"No. I know that me living is another person fighting for the end. I still have stuff to do when we get back." I smiled. "I still have to prove to my mom that I am in fact smart enough to go to MIT."

"You're so narcissistic. You may as well be the man himself."

"Well I am pretty enough for it."

He smiled at that. "Come on, let's go back."

"Can't."

"Why not?"

"Look," I said pointing to my cursor.

"Not a problem." He paused for a moment. "You better never repeat this. . . I was a massive PKer during the beta."

I had no reaction at first. Then it sunk it. No more respawning meant that was murder now. That was something that we had to hide. Eventually, beta hating ending, but it was replaced by PKers.

". . . And?"

"I spent my fair share-okay provably more-as an orange. I learned some tricks."

"Okay then. What is the plan?"

"Rather simple really, just run fast and dodge. Nothing can get past the locked door of a player owned home or inn without the key. It is just a really violent game of British bulldog."

"What game isn't violent?"

"No," Frenzy warned, "it gets bad. You take no damage, but if they get you, you are getting out. Of the village. Just be glad they don't have spears."

We started to walk towards the village. Once we got to the gate, we stopped.

"Okay last minute advice: don't get hit in a hallway."

"Why not?"

"Just trust me. Also wait till you have full hp."

I looked at him skeptically.

"You'll want it."

Frenzy walked into the village and opened the door to the inn. He wanted me to face as little obstacles as possible.

With my hp full, I took my first step into the village. So far so good. I took another. Then a third. Everything was fine. On my third step, everyone in the village stopped. They all turned towards me. There was only three in the square and one at the blacksmith. I was set a bit on edge but I was fine. It wasn't till the fifth step that all heck broke loose.

The village erupted with sound. I ran full-tilt-buggy to the inn. Ya I didn't make it. I was maybe ten feet away when the first village reached me. The woman slapped me and sent me flying into the wall twenty feet away. My entries left side went numb. I slowly slid to the ground in shock of the overwhelming sensation. The village woman dashed over to me and gave me a nasty uppercut. It lunched me over the wall and into a tree. I must have fallen an additional twenty feet.

The impact and fall damage sapped 75% of my health. Full hp wanted in deep.

I lay on the ground and groaned.

I could hear Frenzy yelling. "Not bad. You may actually make it on your next try."

I had almost given up. Almost. But then I remembered this was a game. This could be fun. It helped that I could use my skills any way that I wanted. If I could just get a good combo off-

Frenzy must have read my mind. "No you can't kill them. They're level 99."

Dang it. Oh well. This seemed like the kind of thing that you should just blindly run through till you win. I tried that way, but it wasn't enough. I manage to get to the doorway of the inn, but then some guy grabbed me and literally threw me out of the village. It was then I came up with an idea.

I ran a wide circle around the inn on my third attempt. It grouped all the NPCs together, but I never got close enough to for them to touch me.

I made a wide loop to get myself in front of the door, but sill kind of far. I whipped out my sword and used CHARGE. It was just enough to get me through the doors. Frenzy slammed them shut right after me.

"Not bad. Took me four tries my first time. Room 69."

"Nice."

"I know right, I'm surprised there are even that many rooms."

I was feeling pretty good about myself. I beat a quest, I didn't kill my best friend, and I got to sleep inside. Everything was almost going amazing. If things were to stay like this for the next 100 floors then Aincrad would be paradise.

I was so absorbed in my thoughts that I didn't notice the maid. Dang it, why is it always the maid. The killer, the cheated with, the one that would have broken my spine. Honestly I think that when she punched me the back, my head touched my heels.

So do you guys remember back in the days of drivers ed when your teacher tells you that if you don't wear a seat belt and get in a crash you will start bouncing around the car at 60 mph? Ya that was me, except in a hallway. And I kept getting slammed. It was quite the ride. My entire body went numb and all I felt was the movement. It was the jerkiest roller coaster ride ever. The next thing I know is that a door opens and I fly into a room. I bounced off the floor one last time then landed upside down in a chair.

"I'll give that landing an 8. I would give you a 9, but you didn't keep your legs together."

"I hate you so much right now."

He threw a pillow jokingly at me. "Bring it punk," he challenged.

"You would expect the girls to have pillow fights, but why us."

"Because this is a video game. With power ups."

He let that sink it then then sent a challenge request.

FRENZY HAS REQUEST A PILLOW DUEL. AT STAKE: 97325 COL. DO YOU ACCEPT?

Frenzy knew I would take him up if he bet all his money. Screw it; I was going to buy sooooo much cake if I won.

Frenzy made the first move. He walked over and down slashed my head. It was only a pillow so it didn't do much. Next I nailed him with a nasty uppercut. At that point, we just went to town on each other. It was a furry of blows, trying to get the other to stagger. Finally, we both jumped back. We were both panting. Then a small window appears.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEARN WEAPON SKILL: PILLOWS?

My mind was blown that such a skill would even exist. Infinite skills indeed. Of course I said yes.

"Now that we are equal grounds," Frenzy started while charging a skill. "let's get serious." He let or a BACKHAND SLAP. It didn't have too much power, but it was obvious that this was an all-new game. Crap. I must admit, I was out classes.

Frenzy fought for all he was worth, chaining skill after skill. Some of them we skills for his curved sword, but some were unique to pillows. I held up my pillow and block as many hits as I could. After the third block, a support skill activated. CLOUD SHIELD and skills like it for other weapons would activate after blocking a few sword skills. It was supposed to balance out fighters that spammed skills like Frenzy.

With the SURVER'S help, I was able to block the rest of Frenzy's attacks. Relying on instinct brought the pillow back and threw it at Frenzy who was taking a cool down from all his skills. I must have done something right because the projectile was glowing back as it sailed into his face.

With physics only achievable in cartoons and video games, my pillow bounced back into my hands. The massive blow knocked Frenzy to the ground. Without wasting any time, I jumped on him and started wailing on him for all I was worth. After a few brutal seconds, a victory window sprung up.

CONGRATULATIONS. YOU BEAT A STRONGER OPPONENT YOUR SKILL INCREASED BY 7.

7! Holy crap.

"Dude what is your skill?" I asked.

"Well trivial skills like this one raise fast. So, uhm. . . Fifty."

"Well your skill is just a number. Not mine."

"Ya whatever. Let's go to sleep. We've had a long day."

"With my bank full of Frenzy's money, I slept well that night. It was the closest call we had ever had on that day, but we all learned some valuable lessons.


	8. Chapter 8

**So I had this chapter planned way back, but then I ended up making my little side story nearly ten pages long so ya, it turned out differently then I planned but now I know the general path of the story for the next while**

Chapter 8

Dealing with Powerful Newbs

Life went on. New skills were learned and levels increased. And that brings me back to the present: waiting for the boss meeting. I changed from thinking of the past to the future. I had learned ALCHEMY a while back and one of the new potions I learned was the love potion. I assumed that it would only work on NPCs but I could have some fun with it. I figured it wouldn't hurt to use it on Soul. Then I thought better about and decided that maybe I should take the straight up approach and asked her if she wanted to get dinner together.

"If we beat the boss," I started typing, "want to get dinner. Just the two of us?" I sent her the message.

A few minutes later: "Sure."

All right! Fist pump. Happy dance in my head, happy dance in my head.

My mental party was interrupted by Blast's voice. "No, I do not want to see your sword."

Oh man, does that guy have it in for him. I totally had to watch this. The guy trying to hit on her had spiky gold hair. He failed before he even started. His light clothes clashed so badly with his hair. I figured that he would probably try to pull off some expensive sunglasses if SAO had any. He was a sword and shield user and had matching armor to go with his hair. My guess was that he was a tank with high HP and DEF. That was not the best match up for Blast. She was more of what I considered a vanguard with balanced SPEED, STRENGTH, and HP. I guess it didn't matter too much. Player skill played a much bigger role than skill level.

"Come on babe," came the reply. "My skills are great."

"I'm soooo sure they are, but I'm not interested."

"I get it," came a cocky response, "you want some incentive. How about after I show you how combat works, I show you some of the best restaurants in town?"

I wasn't paying attention earlier, so I didn't know that Mr. Superstar thought Blast was a newb. She was still in her popular girl ways and wore the stylish clothes that Shine made without armor or weapons when in town. It might be useful for hustling, something that Blast and I were very guilty of, but sometimes it attracted the wrong kind of attentions.

"I eat my own food, thank you," Blast's annoyance was starting to be clear.

"Oh," came a pleasant surprised tone, "a skiller. You are welcome to join my guild if you want."

"No, thank you," Blast was clearly now tired of dealing with the hipster.

"How about this, I will go to the meeting and I'll tell you about it over dinner. You have to be level 7 to get in, but I'm level 8." At least the guy wasn't all talk.

"I can take care of myself."

"But I'll take real," the guy extended his arm and touched Blast's cheek, "good care of y-" he started to move his hand down. Blast did not like where the conversation-or hand-were going and let an EMBRACER off right in his face.

Martial art skills were still rare. At level 9, I had one of the highest strength stats in SAO. In order to get the skill, you had to complete a quest that required breaking a rock with your bare hands. I was just barely strong enough to do it so my guild held most of the people that had the skill. Because of its obscurity, Fancy Pants had no idea how a simple punch sent him flying.

As he picked himself off the ground, he drew his sword. "Why you little b-"

I thought that was a good time to step in. Like I said, I figured that this was not a good match up for Blast. She still could win this fight, and probably would, but it would be close. I, on the other hand, would have a level advantage and stat advantage. I would wipe the floor with this punk just as easily as Blast would win.

"Last I heard," I arrogantly said, "she didn't want to see your sword."

"Who do you think you are?"

"Oh, you know, just her guild master."

"I can handle myself just fine," came Blast.

"I know you can, but he is trying to recruit you. I cannot let this disrespect to the guild pass."

"I highly doubt you are worth my time." Man this guy needs to learn that he is far from top dog.

"Oh really?"

I showed him my stats. Actually I didn't. SAO had very extensive menus to cover all the customization. One thing that I found was a way to set up a partial status page as well as save it. What I really showed was a three week old page that showed my status at level seven, but didn't show any of my combat skills, except for KNIFE. It made me look like a skiller. It was great for hustling.

"SNEAKING, THIEVING, ALCHEMY? What kind of skills are those. You fight with a knife? You sound like a cowardly hider."

"Looks my like the skills set of an assassin to me," said some new guy. Finally, someone gets me.

"Shut up! You are not a part of this!"

Next I sent a duel request: first to 20% HP loses. Man was I excited to humble this guy.

"I don't need to fight you."

"Who's a coward now?" I bet he was nervous now. At such low life, a critical hit could kill, heck even a powerful attack could deal more than 25% damage. I knew that I could actually kill him if I was unlucky, but I also kind of wanted him to back down.

"Just don't come crying to me if you die." Respect. He actually accepted.

The 60 second countdown started. What's-his-face drew his sword. I, however, also preferred Shine's stylish clothes to armor and did nothing. My knife was in my belt, but I wasn't ready to use it quite yet.

I had him from the first move. As soon as the timer ended, he charged. The easiest way to dodge a LUNGE was to get close and low. I actually managed to slide between his legs. By grabbing his foot, I brought his to the ground the first time. I also called his second move as well. I expected him to stand up and use a charge sword skill. He did. As he was charging, I walked right up to him and grabbed his hand that was held over his head. The light from the charged turned from red to blue then faded away without moving an inch. I saw fear enter is eyes as he became frozen in place. As he took the cool down, I kicked him right in the chest.

He picked himself up from the ground for the second time. He still had most of his life left because I didn't use a skill on him just yet. By this time, a crowd had started to form.

"What's wrong," I taunted. "I haven't even gotten out my knife yet."

He used a skill that I had never seen before. He threw his shield at me. It came out of nowhere so I had no time to dodge. Instead I caught it. The force pushed me back. Because I arrogantly chose to not wear armor, I also lost about 25% of my life. Time to get serious.

Wonder boy chained a few more skills after his little surprise. I used my knife to parry the first two without too much trouble. The glow of the third skill charging I knew all too well as an H SLASH. I steps just out of range of the skill then made my counter attack.

I only knew like five knife skills, but I didn't need to use one. Instead I took advantage of his cool down and moved in for a long stab. He must have some really high defense because I had my knife in his exposed neck for a good three seconds and I only brought him to half health.

I still had my trump card, but I was tired if stalling. I used UPPER-FLING to get my golden opponent into the air. Quickly, I unequipped my knife from my right hand and equipped my sword to my left. One SONIC LEAP later, I was vicariously stood over my opponent.

The victory symbol flashed over my head and the crowd cheered. I think it became clear that I wasn't the underdog, but I won with such skill and flare that I had the support of the crowd.

The cheering changed to laughter after a blue flash. The guy I just schooled was lying on the ground wearing just his underwear. He screamed when he realized what happened.

"Hhhhow?" He was utterly red.

"Oh," I said, "why didn't you change the stakes? Didn't you see it was all or nothing? Some elitist you are."

I felt bad for the guy so I gave him some if his stuff back. As it turned out, I was a lot richer than they guy. Okay, maybe not a lot. It helped that my sword alone was worth more than almost all he had. I decided to give him back about half his money, a few healing item, I would feel bad if he died, his shield and his left shoe. I suppose that I could have given his shield to Blast, but I don't think she would ever use anything of his. I started a trend that I would follow later: taking people's right shoes. This was the first time that I had taken everything from someone, but from that point on whenever I wiped someone out-or at least came close-I would only give back their left shoe and some basic necessities. Blast would start doing the same, but opposite.

"Now run away," I said after I made my charity offering. After he cleared out-I was surprised that only one person tripped him on his way out-I walked over to Blast and lead her to the center of the crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen, I am Hydro and this is Blast and together we are," I took her hand in mine and raised them above our heads, "Crafting Fire," I totally came up with the name right then, "and together we will burn all the troll, and flamers that try and keep us down." We took a bow. "Oh and there is Frenzy over there. Don't mind him. He is just in it for the ladies."

The crowds stayed for about a minute longer before dispersing.

The guy who made a comment early walked over to us.

"Hello, Mr. Assassin, I sure admire your handy work," he said as he shook my hand. "And you," he turned to Blast, "if you work with him, you are probably the only pretty face I would be scared to see when walking down a dark ally."

"Thanks," I responded. "But down to business, what do you want?"

"Friends," he responded. "Soloing is just too hard. Once when paralyzing monsters start to appear, I'm screwed."

"That's not till what floor 15?" Frenzy chimed in.

"I remember the first ones on floor 7."

"Fine Mr. Beta tester," Frenzy responded.

"Well. . . I, um I mean. Crap," he stuttered as he realized his mistake.

"Don't worry man," reassured Blast. "We don't see betas as trolls."

"It's starting," someone called.

"I was beta," Frenzy offered. "Sit with me. I bet we can exchange stories."

"Thanks. By the way, I'm Trident."

They headed off into the assembly leaving me alone with Blast.

"You didn't have to do that," she said quietly.

"I know."

"I could have taken him."

"I know."

"Then," she looked me right in the eyes, "why?"

"The way that guy was treating you," I started, "it made me mad. We live in a world where too many guys are rude to girls and I hate it. You are my friend. If anyone is rude to you, I will never let it slide." It is what he would have expected of me.

"Well," she started, "thank you."

"What kind if a friend would I be if I let anyone beside me annoy you?"

"One of these days," she added some anger in her tone, as our friendship would demand.

"Make sure you live till then," I started to walk to the assembly. "After all I just promised the people that we would make a guild. Plus I don't want Soul to be sad when we go out to dinner after this."

I took a big sidestep to the left as I suspected a right hook. Instead I felt the wind of Blast's shield flying by. Quick learner. After only seeing it once. I really didn't want to meet Blast in a dark alley.

**As always feel free to leave a review. It really helps to know that of the couple hundred that are going to read my story after I post it actually like it. It doesn't take that long to write a few words and review really mean a lot to me any. Any way till next time**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

We're Going on a Boss Hunt; We're Going on a Boss Hunt. I'm not Scared (but some of these people are)

"Okay, let's get started, people," a guy with blue hair called the meeting to order. "Thank you for coming today. My name is Diabel. I like to consider my class as knight"

"SAO had no classes you dingus," someone shouted out.

The crowd jeers at him for a moment, but then he went serious.

"Today, our party found the boss room at the top of the tower."

There was whispering throughout the entire assembly.

"We need to defeat the boss, reach the second floor, and tell everyone waiting in the TOWN OF BEGINNINGS that it is possible to beat this game. Everyone present here shares this duty! Do you all agree?"

I turned to Trident. "You down?"

"Naturally. I came to you for friends. Friends that will fight for each other."

There was a bit of applause for Diabel and his stance.

"All right then, let us begin our planning. First, divide into parties of six."

We were a group of four, but we figured that we could join up with a party of two latter.

"An ordinary party has no chance against a floor boss. We'll need to form a raid group using multiple parties."

There was a mad scramble as groups formed and combined and reformed. There weren't any scrubs that were a party of two so I let go the idea of forming a full group.

"Okay, have you formed your parties?" Diabel continued. "Then-"

"Just a second!" called out some goof that came bounding down the steps. "My name's Kibaou. I wanna say something before we take on the boss. Some of you here need to apologize to the two thousand who have died so far!" He pointed an accusing finger into the crowd.

"Kibaou," started Diabel, "are you referring to the beta testers?"

"Of course I am. On the day this stupid game started, the beta guys ditched us beginners, and they all disappeared. They took all the good hunting spots and easy quest for themselves so only could get stronger. And then, they just ignored the rest of us. I'm sure someone here was in the beta! They should get on their knees and apologize and give up all the items and money they've hoarded. Otherwise, we can't trust them to protect us as party member, and they shouldn't trust us!"

I did not like this guy. Boy did I want to pick a fight with him. This megascub was trying to scam the best players for items. Was he really that stupid to think that was true? Did he really think that the beta tester didn't form bonds over the last two month? The good players that he was trying to get obviously couldn't even do that. The game was so different from the beta that no had even found the boss room yet. Any good gamer knows that you always rush the first few floor. Why would waste time on the lowest floor when you could rush ahead to a zone with items and exp five times as good. The type of player that knew all the optimal placed would know it for like floor five.

Then it hit me, he was not targeting a group he was going after one beta. One tester that must know the entire game like the back of his own hand.

Frenzy was one of the better testers so he knew what kind of player was like that. He knew who even. Well close. Frenzy had told me that there were three players that shined above all others. The first was a very social guy. He was nice enough, but was strict when picking party members. Frenzy could just barely make that cut so he the guy a bit. The next was a notorious red player. He was known for PKing entire groups. PK actually had the highest exp rating in the game. Not much a use now, but back in the beta it had massive gain. The last was a solo player. Not much was known about him other than he averaged twenty hours of play a day. He was by far the strongest player and must have known the game better than anyone. People only really saw him during boss fights. Like as in now.

"What was with that guy," I said. "Do you think anyone buys his crap?"

"Who knows," said Frenzy. "He probably just wanted an excuse to make money off people."

I turned to Trident. "You won't have to worry about the hate here." By this point Blast had figured out Frenzy was a beta tester. None of the girl cared. Shine freaked out for like two seconds before realizing that Frenzy was still the same nice guy and the beta meant nothing.

"May I speak," a new guy chimed in. A massive black guy faced off against Kibaou, dwarfing him. "My name is Egil. Kibaou, tell me if I have it right. You're saying that because the beta testers didn't take care of them, many beginners died. That they should take responsibility, apologize, and provide compensation. Correct?"

"Y-yeah," he stuttered. Obviously scared of this big man challenging his logic.

Egil pulled out a small book. "You got this guide book, didn't you?"

I turned and glare at frenzy. He turned bright red. He forgot to give me one. It had occurred to him to buy me a starter kit, but not get a guide book?

"It was provided for free at the item store," Egil continued.

"Sure I did. Why?"

"It was compiled from information given by the beta testers. Listen. Everyone had equal access to this information. And even still, many players died. I thought the topic of discussion here was what we could learn from their deaths, and how that can help us defeat the boss."

After that, everyone was speechless. Kibaou sat down in shame.

After that, info about the boss was discussed. The boss's name was Illfang the Kobold Lord. Then we went over how items and stuff would be split.

"Want to go resupply," I asked.

Blast eyed my with a mysterious grin. "You know, my THIEVING level has grown quite a bit."

"Ya," I responded, "but you still can't get in without me. There can be only one." By that I meant my LOCK-PICKING skill.

"What are they talking about," questioned Trident.

"Blast and Hydro have a tendency to steal stuff," Frenzy nonchalantly responded.

"Oh," he want quiet.

"It makes shopping more fun," said Blast.

"Ya," I followed up. "Shine may have BARGAINING, but you can't beat free."

"Hydro and I need you and Frenzy to distract the position shop owner while be break in," explained Blast.

"What will happen if you get caught?"

"We get marked for an hour and are unable to buy anything. Plus we lose all the potions we have. Trying to steal much harder if we're marked; plus, if you get caught stealing while marked, you get and even larger penalty that will keep getting bigger and bigger," I explained.

"So don't get caught?"

"Pretty much."

"That is where we come in," started Frenzy. "If the shopkeeper is talking to us then he is not catching Hydro and Blast."

"Also," I started, "there is a max on how much can be stolen at one time so we make loops. Today will be just the one, but some days we go on for a few hours. You'll catch on real quick."

We walked through the town and through some back allies. We came to a door. I walked up and examined it. If a normal person were to exam the door, they would only get, "the door is locked." I got, "potion shop door." I clicked on the name and a little window popped up: "would you line to unlock door? 15% success."

I clicked yes and low and behold it opened. "You unlocked the door on your first try! Double exp! You advance a LOCK-PICKING skill level. Level 50/1000"

"Heck ya, today is going to be a good day."

I held the door open for Blast and walked into the little hallway. This is where SNEAKING was particularly useful. While Frenzy took Trident around front, I practically had free reign of the shop. Sure if the shop keeper saw me I was screwed, but he couldn't hear me. It also helped that standing still in a shadow made me invisible. I quickly ran to the brewing part of the shop. The door there was an 80% chance success so I also got that one on my first try. I walked into the room and it was nice and dark. Rooms that were used in making store goods were heaven for thieves. All the raw materials sitting out had a 100% steal rates. There was still a max on what could be stolen at one time, but who cares when you can't fail.

I went right to work. Herbs sitting on a table? Gone. Plants freshly grounded? Mine. Ingredients only chopped half way? Dude, not even the knife was safe.

I was so caught up with my five finger discount that I nearly screamed when I bumped into Blast. I had just filled my last vile from a pot that was still brewing. I stood up and bumped right into her. She managed to sneak in with her natural abilities. I would be lying if I said I wasn't impressed.

"Oh, there you are Blast," I said trying to play it cool.

See didn't buy it. Luckily, she only felt the need to raise an eyebrow.

"Mind grabbing some herbs for me?" I said gesturing to some orange grass I already hit my limit on.

"No," she replied with lots of sass. "I will gladly grab some. I know you'll pay me top dollar for them latter." The nerve of that girl. Trying to sell stolen goods to the thief that got her into the joint.

"Ya sure whatever."

Just as Blast started to wrap up, we heard a bell ring. That must be our distractors showing up. That was our cue to head for the storage room. The storage room was right next to the main shop. Without help, you could only stay in there for about 30 seconds at a time before the shop keeper would check the door. As long as Frenzy kept the owner talking, he wasn't catching us.

"How can I help you," boomed the shopkeeper. He always talked really loud.

Blast had no trouble making it to the storage room. The shopkeeper was so loud that we could whisper safely.

"What are you chances," I asked.

"15. Roughly 65 attempts to steal at capacity." How she did all her math so quickly was beyond me. I was in calc three for crying out loud and she still thought in more numbers than me.

"20%. Less times." My actually success rate was 42%, but I didn't want her to know I would be done quite a bit sooner than her. I had plans.

So there we were, mashing windows like you would expect in most modern MMORPG's trying to max out that exp per second. Anyway, I finished quite a bit before Blast so I started stealing from her. She was so focused on her own stealing that she didn't notice. I really like my "friends and family" discount. Blast could set whatever price she wanted on those herbs. It didn't matter when they were 100% off. I also stole all of her potions. She still had about three left to steal after I cleaned her out.

With nothing to better to do besides wait, I chose to do one of my, how do you say, not better options. Using my SNEAKING, I went over a room to the entrance of the shop. Hydro and Trident were still getting their ears talked off. I noticed that the only light came from the front window. This causes the counter to cast a shadow on the side that I was on. Oh man was I going to abuse that.

I wave at Frenzy and mouthed at him to distract the shopkeeper in the front of the store. He managed to point out a painting and the shopkeeper walked away from the door to the far side of the counter to give an explanation.

I took this opportunity to dart into the shadows of the counter. The shopkeeper went on to lecture about history and what not, but to be honest, I couldn't have told you anything other than he was programmed to think he made potions for a very long time.

Anyway, moving with short, precise movements, I started the pit pocketing process. It was so sketchy. Every time I moved, I was in danger of being scene. I was just glad the NPCs didn't see windows. The potion keeper actually had some good stuff on him. One item I had never even heard of: BESERKER POTION. Since it was only one item, I stole it with a 67% chance. Too bad that stealing everything was less one percent.

Just then, I started thinking, a dangerous pastime, and wondered what would happen if I tried to steal when SNEAKING. So I tried and failed. No matter how many times I tried it, failing to steal scared the crap out of me. Think of there being a soft background track playing then out of nowhere the bass kicks up and is playing some minor fight cords. You would never expect such a contrasting drop. Ya, that's what I felt, it helped that the actually sound played. The more you failed to pickpocket, the louder the sound.

"Sweet corn, what was that?" said Trident.

"Thief," yelled the shop keeper. He turned around to try and find the thief. Of course, I was still in the shadows invisible. Needless to say, I tried to steal again.

That was the best choice I could have made. I got a massive thieving bonus for sneaking up on a target that was trying to find me. I managed a clutch steal at only 30%. The shop keeper stepped out and went to the storage room. Blast had nowhere to run.

"Why you little," the shopkeeper grabbed Blast by the collar of her shirt and dragged her to the back door. Once there, he took all the potions she had and brutally threw her out the door and into the alley. "And stay out!"

While he was distracted, I jumped over the counter and out the front door. Trident and Frenzy followed soon afterwards.

"Aww boy," I was unable to stop smiling. "I scored so hard. You wouldn't believe it."

"How many did you get," asked Frenzy.

I checked my inventory. "Thirty-seven."

"Sweet corn," exclaimed Trident. "That will last us more than the raid. Y'all worth more than a whole coup of chicken."

"Ya, how did you get nearly four times the cap?" questioned Frenzy.

"Well, I manage a successful steal from the shopkeeper. I actually stole all he had." I check my inventory again. "I got about 100 herbs too. I got about double the cap off the shopkeeper."

"But that still doesn't lineup" said Trident. "I reckon that you should have three times the cap."

"Oh," I said. "I actually unintentionally got that much. But I guess because Blast got caught, it was a good call. I got bored of waiting for Blast to finish so I stole all the stuff she stole. It was for the best. I got lots if exp and Blast didn't lose the items. I guess that it was my fault that she got caught. My first attempt to steal all was only one percent. I only tried because I knew it didn't matter what happened to Blast if I fai-" I fell face forward into the ground.

My whole body tingled. It was so bad that I actually started twitching. The discomfort in my head was so great that it actually hurt.

"You, did, what?!" man was I in trouble this time.

I rolled over and looked up only to see Blast already straddling me. She had her shield in her hand, ready to strike. I had been really careful about what I said here. Blast knew that she wouldn't actually do any damage to me in a safe zone so she wouldn't hold back. It took a lot of effort to actually cause pain in Aincrad, but Blast never had trouble causing so much tingling that it hurt. I swear she must be hacking the system or something because I felt more discomfort from taking any attack from Blast then from any attack I had ever taken from a monster.

I figured that she would smack me no matter what I said, but honestly seemed like the best path. "I stole everything that you stole from you. It was also my fault that you got caught."

I held her gaze as she stared down at me. I braced myself for what was sure to be coming my way.

"See that you do not do that again," she said. Blast actually started to walk away without hitting me again. I stood up and let out a sigh of relief.

"Man," said Trident, "those to fight like a couple of rosters. They must really hate each other."

"Actually," said Frenzy, "it is much worse than that. They actually like each other."

Trident raised his eyebrows and eyed me suspiciously. "You're not into that dominatrix stuff are ya?"

"Dude!" I said rather offended. "OMGOSH no! You just don't say that."

"Ya," said Frenzy, "I didn't mean that at all. Hydro's and Blast's bond just goes deeper than most. They have only know each other for a few weeks, but their bond runs as deep as people that fight for each other's lives for a lifetime. Also, remember that in Aincrad, pain is almost non excitant. And Hydro is a massive turd."

I opened my mouth to object, but didn't. It was a rather true statement-at least when it came to Blast.

"I have never seen Blast start anything. Always Hydro. Plus I have never actually seen them fight. The thing is, what would be considered a light smack upside the head IRL sends you flying here."

"Blast is just like one if the guys," I chimed in. "She displays affection through physical contact. Just beware, the more she likes you, the more it hurts."

"Calm down you baby. Hurry up or we'll be left behind." Frenzy turned and ran after Blast.

We stayed the night at an inn and set off with everyone in the morning. The walk to the labyrinth was rather uneventful. I got to get to know some more people and that was about it. I also "checked" the inventory of most of the fighters. I didn't steal anything yet, but I figured that it might be useful to know who had enough potions. I also noticed that a few players had teleportation crystals. Probably would be very useful to tp when in a pinch.

I found the items of two people in the back particularly interesting-and not just because they didn't join my group. The one guy had some potions, some food, and then the rest of his inventory was filled practically to the brim with what I assume was part of a gathering quest he hadn't finished yet. The girl's inventory was filled with junk. She must have had every sword she ever bought and a bunch of random monster drops and only a few potions.

I figured that they were just two random solo players that paired up. They guy would go far; he was probably an experienced gamer. The girl...it didn't even look like she knew what she was doing. She must have some good skill to get enough levels to join the raid, but if she didn't figure it out soon, she would be so screwed.

Anyway, like I said the walk to the labyrinth was uneventful, but the climb up and another matter altogether. There were skeletons and goblins galore. I thought the exp was great. Others found the number of foes alarming.

I quickly became known among such players. I did not fear a mere twenty goblins, especially when there were about 50 people. I still averaged two kills. Maybe level was just a number after all. Sometimes I forwent kills to play medic. Potions were practically worthless to me when I got my for free. The life of a person was much more valuable. However, I didn't have infinite potions. I restocked my supplies by steal from the people I healed. If they were out, I would take my payment from someone else in their party.

Blast also started life saving, but she didn't have as much use. While not everyone could stand just out of range of the goblins' attacks like I could, everyone started picking up on the attack pattern. Pair this with only the few well-placed skills to finish a goblin, the need for life saving was greatly reduced after about the tenth wave.

This changed when skeletons started appearing. I got a bit nervous when fighting these things. With my paper thin defenses, I could only take three hits. Their hit boxes were really weird. If your attacks slipped through their exposed rib cages then you missed. I had to fight these things with my knife and it was really sketchy. I would have used my sword, but the durability was getting low and I wanted to save it for the boss. I guess that didn't matter much. I didn't think twice about charge into the first wave.

"Trident, watch my back," I yelled as I charged my first skeleton. These were low level skeletons and were slightly shorted than your average person. They didn't have the highest defense ever, but the knives they carried could sure leave a mark.

I figured that Trident would be able to keep any other skeletons from attacking me-he did a good job with goblins-and went in for the kill. This was the first time I fought a skeleton so I just wanted to do a few damage checks on it. I stood just inside what I guessed what its attack range was and waited for the first knife slash. It pulled back it armed and followed up with a vicious horizontal slash. The attack lasted about half a second, more than enough to duck under the attack.

As soon as the knife was out of the way, I used my own. In a less than a second I was holding the mob by the back of the head and had my knife in its empty eye socket. I watched as its hp ticked down painfully slow.

The first hit of the thrashing arm brought me down to about 60%. The next hit came a few seconds later.

"Rrah," I groaned in defeat. "Switch." I got away and half a second latter the skeleton shatter after Trident's lance slid through its ribcage.

Dang it. All that effort, and for nothing. Nine seconds of tanking it out and Mr. Bones would have gotten away with about a fifth of health left. And where was I? Retreating. Not just a few step backs. No, all the way in the back away from the action, sipping a potion. What can I say: 20% is a scary place to be. I really needed a new knife.

As I watched from afar, I started to notice how other groups fought. Most parties actually fought together. For many, a shield barer would block a hit and SWITCHED to a more powerful teammate to finished the monster off-someone whose strength would rival mine-or at least put it in range for the next party member. If the groups did not have very many STRENGTH members, then after about two SWITCHES the shield barer would come back in to block the next incoming attack. It was really something to watch. It was very different to how my party fought. This working together strategy was slower and pinned multiple players to one target-to my usually multiple targets per player-but it was so safe. I took damage as the cost of keeping my dps up. They took damage only after a mistake.

I figured this was why twenty skeletons was a large group to fight. It was more like seven on twenty, not fifty on twenty. If course, there was a few solo players to account for. The solo guy that I saw before was giving the skeletons a massive run for their money. When I first saw him, he was surrounded by five skeletons. He was not in trouble; it just looked like it was more efficient to circle your targets around you. That way the next kill was already there for you.

He must have known more skills then Frenzy, because I never thought his chain would end. He killed three skeletons and left the other two at 10%. He switched out and his partner cleaned up. They killed five together in about the same time it took a group to kill two. That guy. Holy crap that guy. This was just the first floor and he was already way ahead of the level curve. I could only imagine how godlike he would be by floor sixty. The girl was good too. She was a powerful, confident fight. She may not know how to live in an RPG, but she sure knew how to kick butt.

By this time, a group of two-man were we really that unpopular-was fighting the last monster. They seemed to be having a bit of trouble. Scratch that, a lot of trouble. One of the guys took a nasty blow that cut him from hip to shoulder. The blow knocked him back, and he barely stayed standing. Guessing from his hp, he was not living that attack.

His teammate called out to him, probably guessing the same thing. Looked like a job for me. I had gotten a good chunk of hp back myself and figured I could take a hit.

I dashed towards the doomed soul with my fingers flying. I had only about five seconds to reach the guy and didn't have time to waste stealing a potion from him. A potion flashed into my hand just as I reached the poor guy. He must have not heard me coming; he was just staring blanking at the woman he was fighting with. I hooked him in a choke hold like I was about to cut his throat expect I put a potion to his lips instead of a knife in the neck. I sat him down and he took the potion from my hand.

"Trident," I called. "Light then up." Code words are fun. Out of the crowd of players, a spear flew out and implied the skeleton's head. The woman fighting it stepped forwards and smashed the animated bones to crystals.

Everyone noticed what I did. It was the final kill. There was even a small cheer. I took the opportunity to try and gain more fame.

"Hello, my name is Hydro," I started, "and this is Trident. Wave to the people Trident." I saw a hand in the crowd go up and wave. "And together, we are crafting fire to burn down any monster that tries to take us down."

I walked over to the woman; I needed to reclaim a potion. She must have thought I wanted to shake hands. I can only imagine her thoughts as I moved my own hand past hers and reached for her chest. The look on her face. Priceless. One thing that I learned was that if you are looking into a person's eyes when stealing, it had a 100% chance of success. You were almost certain to be caught, but I highly doubt that this woman would attack me back.

Her hand was still out so I shook it while browsing her wares. I noticed that she got a good drop from that final kill. I decided to take that too. I heard a bit of chatter from the crowd. Most of the people knew of the orange cursor that appeared when assaulting another play or being to "forward" as some people were.

"What," I said while walking away. "A potion for a potion."

"And the knife?" she asked.

I offered a hand to the other player as he was still on the ground. "Your life is worth quite a bit more than some crappy knife."

"Fair enough," he said. "I won't forget this."

The other players calmed down as they started to realize what had actually happened. I rejoined my own party and my cursor quickly faded back to green.

Trident could not look at me without snickering.

"What," I asked.

"It's just," he started. "Just. Some of these folks thought yer a bigger perv than a bull during mating season." He burst out laughing.

Figures, it is the guy in his mid-twenties that was laughing at me.

The final stretch was rather uneventful. I took this time to review my inventory. I had some crap that I got from the goblins. I would have to just pawn that off on some NPC store. The bones were an interesting find. They were both crafting and alchemy items. I didn't know if I should keep them or give them to Shine. I was pretty sure that no one in our group was goth, but I bet she could sell the bone clothes she would make to someone that was at a good price. The dagger that I got was actually really good. It was the rare drop variant. Too bad I couldn't use it yet. Equipment drops usually had low durability when first acquired. If I were to use it now without letting Shine fix it up, it might break. I would just have to put up with my minimal dps till then.

The last few waves of skeletons were good practice for my group. We started to get a hold on group fighting. We still kept our own twist too it though. Our group would take on a few skeletons at a time. Rather than fighting each one individually, we would constantly switch. Ya, we could only take on three instead of six, but it was safe.

Because of mine and Blast's extreme flair, we attracted lots of attention. I think people were catching on that I named our to-be-established guild was named after Blast.

At one point I switched back to sword for a bit. One poor player was low on health, away from his group, and about to be hacked to death by a skeleton. Without speaking, Blast and I sneaked up and let him have it. Blast dashed over and blocked a fatal blow. Next, she let off a HELMET SPLITTER (flipping over a target and slashing them in the head) and landed behind it. At the same time, I used a very situation skill, SLIDER where you slide under your target while attacking. I stopped about the same time as she landed. There was a paused then we were showered in pixels like rose petals. Man were we crafting some fire today.

Some of the other players attracted a bit of attention. I was a bit busy doing my own thing to really notice. I just know that the hot teenage girl in a group of predominately guys would attract the lots of attention regardless of what she did. There were seven girls in the raid party and Blast was definitely on top. Looking back, dang were Frenzy and I lucky. We were literally trap in a video game with little to no choose, but to live with a group of beautify girl. And now all I had to do was not die so I could go on a date with one that was very interested in me.

Back to the point, we finally made it to the doors of the boss room.

**Holy Freaking Crap, I put off posting this one. So I learned that coping subs is a slow infuriating process and I do not plan on doing so again. I would have posted this over a month ago but it was such a pain in the butt to quote one scene that I put it off. Anyway, feel free to leave a review or a follow. I'm half-way done with the next chapter for my Pokémon story so feel free to check that out if you like people x Pokémon combat. DFTBA**


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